Making Waves
Rock the Earth Takes a Shot Across the Bow of the Cruise Industry

In the January newsletter, Rock the Earth reported on the incredibly damaging impact that cruise ships have on ocean and coastal areas. The vast majority of cruise ships utilize minimal water treatment, resulting in millions of gallons of waste being discharged directly into the ocean, sometimes in critical aquatic ecosystems and in violation of federal requirements. These discharges not only impact large numbers of fish and marine life, but also coastal areas, birds and marine mammals. Additionally, untreated air pollution from cruise ships release tons of greenhouse gasses during each cruise, and severely and negatively contribute adversely to onshore human health. Rock the Earth believes that cruise lines have a legal and moral obligation to take measures to reduce their impact on the environment, and we also believe that the growing collaboration between the music industry and cruise lines provides an opportunity to raise environmental consciousness and make our voice heard to challenge cruise industry practices.

Late last month, in response to the EPA report on the cruise ship industry, Rock the Earth joined with Friends of the Earth and approximately 53 other groups, and submitted a comment letter to the EPA. The letter highlighted the key findings of the EPA report, and made recommendations for immediate action by the EPA and the U.S. Coast Guard to force the cruise ship industry to reduce its harmful impact on the environment.

The comment letter urged the EPA to implement emergency regulations banning the discharge of effluent from cruise ships within 12 miles of the coast of the U.S., until a comprehensive regulatory scheme can be implemented. The letter also recommends that EPA require cruise ships to use the best currently available technology to treat its waste products before dumping them into the ocean, and urged the Coast Guard and the EPA to step up monitoring of cruise ship waste streams and discharge practices. The letter also recommended a ban on discharges from cruise ships within protected areas and within 12 miles of the U.S. coast, and recommended the creation of a system of independent observers to monitor cruise ship performance and compliance with environmental regulations.

Rock the Earth submitted its own comment letter. In the letter, RtE reiterated the key recommendations from the coalition’s letter, and also went further:

1. Recognizing that educated consumers will bring the kind of economic pressure to bear on the cruise industry that may lead most quickly to reducing the environmental impact of cruise ships, RtE recommended that cruise lines be required to disclose their waste treatment practices–or lack thereof–in their advertising, and that they be required to provide a link to the EPA report on cruise ship waste in their advertisements as well.

2. RtE also called on the EPA the to encourage state governments to use their authority under section 312 of the Clean Water Act, to require EPA to designate areas in which any discharge by cruise ships would be prohibited.

Through our two years of collaboration with Jam Cruise, Rock the Earth got a first-hand look at the growing trend of collaboration between the music industry and the cruise industry. While we are proud of our work in 2006 and 2007 to green Jam Cruise, we have now joined the fight to address the massive scale of the cruise ship industry’s damaging impact on our oceans and coastal areas. RtE’s comments on the EPA report on the cruise ship industry, and RtE’s partnership with Friends of the Earth, reflect our challenge to the cruise ship industry—and cruise ship passengers- to take immediate action to drastically reduce the impact of cruise ships on our environment.

More information on this topic can be found on the RtE Cruise Ship Project page. Rock the Earth’s letter to EPA can be found here.

Friends of the Earth’s comment letter (to which RtE signed on as well) can be found here.

Back to Rock the Earth Notes