Vancouver Island..

Today’s post unfortunately doesn’t bring any good news. It seems that the importance of cost takes a higher ranking in Victoria B.C. than finding a way to reduce sulfur dioxide levels while the ships are docked at James Bay. People are estimated to be breathing in levels 2 to 3 times higher than the okayed amount.

It becomes every more surprising to find out that the problem can be solved by what the industry would call plugging into shore power. Victoria states that this can’t be done because most cruise ships don’t have this ability. With the damage is causing to the environment shouldn’t this become a requirement? BC Hydro has also stated that this would cost tens on millions of dollars, proving that cost takes the higher ranking.

You can check out the youtube link that plays a short news clip brought to you by Vancouver Island News in 2010 about this very problem. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elZ7Z8Tltrk

Cruise Ships and the things you just might not know...

Most of us love the idea of traveling the world on a luxury boat and getting to see several places at once for a relatively cheap price. While aboard a cruise ship you get accommodation, food, shopping and in several cases everything you need while on vacation.

Unfortunately many people don’t know the amount of pollution that a cruise ship can deposit into the environment in just one day.  Here are some astonishing facts that I found while doing some research; Environmental Protection Agency averaged that one ship can produce about 21 000 gallons of sewage, 1 ton of garbage, 170 000 gallons of waste water, and about 8 500 plastic water bottles a day. If this doesn’t shock you, I don’t know what will.