26 November 2024
Cruise ship passengers from the Diamond Princess had a surprising welcome to Pōneke on Sunday morning. Climate Liberation Aotearoa provided a welcoming High Tea at the drop-off point outside the iconic Government Buildings Historic Reserve. Supporters of Climate Liberation Aotearoa occupied some of the parking spots in a cheery “Haere Mai, Absolutely Positively Wellington” welcome.
The well-established, nationwide climate action group makes no apology for their confronting message. ‘We believe cruise ship passengers need to know the realities of the industry and its impacts,’ says Frank Preddey, Climate Liberation Aotearoa spokesperson. “We wanted to create a welcome party for the tourists coming into Pōneke to share the local space that often gets so crowded with extra buses and people on cruise ship days. Our quarrel isn’t with the passengers, but we do want to encourage them to think about the harm the industry is doing and the role they can play in mitigating it. There’s a lot of green-wash in this industry and passengers are sometimes shocked when they learn how damaging their holiday actually is”.
The group’s activists were also sending a message directly to the cruise companies themselves. Says Frank, “We want to get the attention of the ship’s owner, Princess Cruise Lines because they’ve certainly got ours.” Princess Cruises was fined USD 40 million in 2017 after pleading guilty to felony charges stemming from the deliberate dumping of oil-contaminated waste and intentional acts to cover it up. “We can’t buy our way out of climate catastrophe. We must have a radical rethink now!” says Frank.
Climate Liberation Aotearoa has contacted Princess Cruise Lines to ask them to sign an open letter to the New Zealand government asking for the emissions from the cruise ship industry to be included in New Zealand’s national emissions reduction targets and emissions reduction plans. At the time of this action, no reply had been received.
This is the second time passengers from the Diamond Princess have been greeted by supporters of Climate Liberation Aotearoa: at their first port of call in Aotearoa in Tāmaki Makaurau on Thursday they were greeted by a seaweed and plastic ocean trash entangled choir. “We are in a time when the rights of regular people and tangata whenua in particular are under attack by this government. We are in a time of increasingly frequent and intense weather events such as the flooding in Ōtepoti last week, and the two devastating hurricanes in Florida, USA. We are in a time when this government is waging a full on war on nature and organised resistance is vital” says Frank.
https://www.cruisemapper.com/news/9882-princess-cruises-pleads-guilty-probation-violation