Tuesday 9th April 2024
Climate Liberation Aotearoa and supporters will be in Pōneke Tuesday the 9th of April while the cruise ship Ovation of the Seas is docked in the port of Wellington. Concerned locals and supporters will be marching to draw attention to the climate, environmental, and human rights impacts of the cruise ship industry. The action will begin at 11:30am starting from 294 Lambton Quay, beside the ANZ bank.
Climate Liberation Aotearoa (CLA) is calling on local and central government to include international shipping and aviation emissions in targets and emissions reduction plans (ERP), ban cruise ships from sensitive ecosystems, and to stop subsidies to the cruise ship industry.
“It might be difficult to see why we would target people’s holidays but cruise ships are possibly the most destructive way to travel around the world,” said Aurora Garner Randolph, CLA spokesperson.
“One cruise ship pumps out as much small particulate matter as one million cars. They are responsible for 25 percent of the waste dumped in our oceans, and present a very real danger to marine mammals. On top of that, the cruise ship industry is terrible for its workers. People from nations already experiencing severe impacts of climate change, such as the Philippines, are employed under slave-like conditions. Why should they have to suffer the climate consequences of the lavish lifestyles of people living in affluent nations?”
Roundtable Human Rights in Tourism, a German not-for-profit working to support the tourism industry to adhere to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, has found that workers can be paid as little as NZ$1.80 per hour. They often work for up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for months at a time.
Cruise ships work under the laws of the state they are registered in. According to the International Transport Workers’ Federation, cruise ship companies are motivated to register in countries that have weak ability or willingness to enforce international minimum standards of human and workers rights. Royal Caribbean International is a US owned business, but flies under the flag of the Bahamas.
“We aren’t telling people not to go on holidays. People should go on trips away from home. We simply ask people who have the privilege of affording holidays to think about the consequences of their choices on other people and their families, the environment, and the climate. ” said Garner Randolph.