Protecting Our Marine Environment

Keeping with our recent eco-statistics posts, I thought I'd present two issues today: Some stats on the damage cruise ships do to our oceans, and some interesting points regarding off-shore drilling. Now, some of you may be scratching your heads as to why I'd present these stats while being in the travel business. It's simple: Both Jessica and I are travelers, want to promote it and take part in it, but we want to do so responsibly. For this reason, we have created a program that reinvests money in eco-friendly, sustainable, and conservation-based non-profits. We give money from every trip to help protect our world. You can read more about this program, here.

Our statistics on cruise ship pollution are well-documented on our Web site here, so please check the link out when you get a chance. To start with offshore drilling, I received an interesting e-mail from a partner of ours (Surfrider Foundation) today regarding offshore drilling. In our quest to lower the price of oil this is a pretty hot topic, and Surfrider pointed out the following:

Regarding calls to restart coastal drilling:

1. Lifting the moratorium will not provide immediate relief from high gas prices.
If the moratorium was lifted it's estimated that it would take about a decade before any oil could even be extracted. And it's safe to assume that drilling might reduce gasoline prices by merely 6-7 cents per gallon. Obviously, this would not have any effect on prices at the pump this summer or anytime in the near future. But it would affect the coastline you love.

2. Drilling for oil offshore threatens the coastal & marine environment, recreation and coastal economies.
Increased spills and industrialization associated with drilling offshore will result in devastating damages for coastal and marine environments for decades - not to mention putting your enjoyment of the beach at risk! Although improved technology may limit the likelihood of catastrophic spills, there are still hundreds of thousands of documented "small" spills in areas heavily used for oil drilling. In one study of a proposed drilling site it was predicted that over the next 40 years there could be up to 870 spills of 2,000 gallons or less - that's over 1 million gallons from just one site.

3. Increasing oil production worsens global warming.
You and I both know that global warming is threatening our planet, our coasts and us. And fossil fuel consumption is a major culprit. It is time to look for alternatives not further our addiction to oil.

Now I'm not sure it's as simple as these points make it out to be, but at a macro level the point is this: Coastal drilling does substantially more harm than good. Drilling does unimaginable harm to our coasts and oceans, and the places we love to visit. As with cruise ships, the solution is not necessarily to just not partake, but rather look for ways to give back and promote legislation that protects these environments. There is a great example of a company working with such legislation for cruise ships called Blue Water Network. They, like us, are seeking to not stop people from taking cruises but to work with governments to pass legislation holding cruise ship companies accountable for how they dispose of their waste. If you'd like to read more about this, please see the following article.