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Pardes Yehuda: Seeing sustainable seas

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Seeing sustainable seas



For better or worse, I am embarking on a cruise Thursday--Key West, Cozumel and a day at sea. The problems (here is just a small example on a website from Hawaii) with the cruise industry are so plentiful that I do not want to get into them here, in the name of positivity. Let us just say I am joining my family and honoring my parents and grandparents (that's positive, right? a 'positive commandment, at least... ok, that's not funny)

In name of my shameful voyage, I offer you this positive report on at least one nation doing work to make cruising more sustainable--my vote would be to make it extinct, but if it's going to be around, best to work together to make it work for all people and the earth.

Labor and social issues aside (which are horrific), the environmental impact is shocking and hard to ignore when you're actually on one of these gigantic ships. Although, for whatever reason the people on the ship don't ever seem to notice... must be the booze. There are efforts from many organizations, most notably Conservation International, are working with (and around or above) the cruise industry to make our waters safer for marine life and more sustainable for our future generations.

Look here for a full report on what the government of Belize is getting involved in...

More positive news when I return next week.

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