CRUISE MY ASS
01.09.2024
On Saturday the 31 August, activists from Ocean Rebellion and Extinction Rebellion welcomed the ‘Resilient Lady’ from Virgin Cruises in Ijmuiden with an appropriate bum based ceremony.
For a few weeks now cruise ships have been stopped from entering the port of Amsterdam by activists blocking the locks in Ijmuiden.
This news spread rapidly in the cruise community and cruise ships started docking in Ijmuiden instead of Amsterdam, transferring the thousands of passengers on buses to the centre of Amsterdam.
We felt the cruise passengers deserved a proper welcome in Ijmuiden before they disembarked, an arse based welcome to let the cruisers know what a bunch of arseholes they really are.
Cheeky, cruise passengers are treated to a two bum salute.
one ship equals six million car exhausts
What´s so bad about cruiseships?
In Amsterdam the cruise ships are becoming a huge irritation to locals. Not only do they block out light (Amsterdam is flat and the height of buildings is regulated), but the passengers, as this Norwegian study shows, don’t contribute much (or anything) to the local economy.
The only thing cruise ships do contribute to Amsterdam is a massive amount of pollution. Studies like this one by NGO T&E have shown that cruise ships emitted 10 times more sulphur oxide (SOX) around European coasts than 260 million cars in 2017.
More recent research is even more scary. Cruise ships are getting bigger and bigger and the problem is too. The cruise industry is trying to greenwash this problem by slowly switching its ships over to a new fuel, Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). But this fuel releases methane into the atmosphere, a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than CO2.
Why should the people of Amsterdam be constantly exposed to cruise ship carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions? Studies have shown that these pollutants are associated with a range of health impacts, including headaches, coughing, dizziness, and other respiratory illnesses. They can also irritate skin, eyes, nose, and lungs. Long-term exposure to these pollutants can lead to heart disease, certain types of cancer, and damage to the reproductive system and internal organs.
Don’t be a cruise bum, help Amsterdam breathe, don’t book another cruise, ever.
