Super-sized cruise ship, Venice, Italy. Photograph: © SAF – Coastal Care
“Environmentalists have long railed against what they brand “sea monsters,” virtually floating cities, each pumping massive amounts of greenhouse gases — sailing perilously close to the sea coast to thrill passengers aboard”…
Excerpts;
The captain of a cruise ship found to be burning fuel with excessive sulphur levels has been fined €100,000 in a Marseille court, the first such ruling in France.
The prosecution was intended to signal a new seriousness in tackling pollution from cruise ships…
Read Full Article; Guardian UK (11-26-2018)
Princess Cruises Hit With Largest-Ever Criminal Penalty For ‘Deliberate Pollution’; NPR (12-01-2016)
The California-based cruise operator, Princess Cruise Lines, will pay a $40 million fine for “deliberate pollution of the seas and intentional acts to cover it up,” according to the Department of Justice, which calls it “the largest-ever criminal penalty involving deliberate vessel pollution.”..
Venice Is Restricting Access to Cruise Ships; Travel & Leisure (11-08-2017)
At Last, the Shipping Industry Begins Cleaning Up Its Dirty Fuels; Yale e360 (06-28-2018)
By 2020, the global shipping fleet will be required to slash the noxious emissions from thick, sulfur-laden “bunker” fuel, a move that is expected to sharply reduce air pollution and prevent millions of cases of childhood asthma and other respiratory ailments…
A Satellite’s View of Ship Pollution; NASA (02-07-2013)
Powering ships with plastic in Amsterdam; UNEP (07-09-2018)
Europe Takes First Steps in Electrifying World’s Shipping Fleets; Yale E360 (02-22-2018)
Container ships, tankers, freighters, and cruise liners are a significant source of CO2 emissions and other pollutants. Led by Norway, Europe is beginning to electrify its coastal vessels – but the task of greening the high seas fleet is far more daunting…
“FREIGHTENED – The Real Price of Shipping,” a movie by multi award-winning filmmaker Denis Delestrac-©-2016; (03-31-2016)
90% of the goods we consume in the West are manufactured in far-off lands and brought to us by ship. The cargo shipping industry is a key player in world economy and forms the basis of our very model of modern civilisation; without it, it would be impossible to fulfil the ever-increasing demands of our societies. Yet the functioning and regulations of this business remain largely obscure to many, and its hidden costs affect us all. Due to their size, freight ships no longer fit in traditional city harbours; they have moved out of the public’s eye, behind barriers and check points…
The Notion of “Ecological Prejudice” Now in the French Civil Code; Latham London (01-17-2017)
With the Biodiversity Law n°2016-1087 of August 8, 2016, the French Civil code now formally recognises “ecological prejudice” (préjudice écologique) as a category of indemnifiable damage. The move is symbolically significant and builds on the recognition of this category of damages by the Court of Appeals of Paris on March 30, 2010 in the 1999 Erika shipwreck matter (which resulted in pollution of over 400km of the French Brittany coastline).
The legal recognition of ecological prejudice can be traced to the Court’s landmark ruling, in which it was decided that “the ecological prejudice resulting from damage to non-mercantile environmental assets shall be compensated by monetary equivalent”. It further defined the matter as an “… objective prejudice … [which] is to apply to any non-negligible harm to the natural environment, that is, to the air, the atmosphere, water, soils, earths, landscapes, natural sites, biodiversity and the interactions between these elements, which may carry no repercussion for any specific human interest but affects a legitimate collective interest”.
