<
https://jalopnik.com/the-icon-of-the-seas-is-250-000-tons-of-floating-carbon-1851189439>
"The
Icon Of The Seas is Royal Caribbean’s newest two-billion dollar
boondoggle. Boasting twenty decks and capacity for 7,600 guests (plus 2,350
crew), this is the single largest cruise ship in the world. It is scheduled to
sail for the first time on January 27, and will conduct seven-night hops around
the Caribbean islands until April. Demand for cruise tourism is at an all-time
high, and the
Icon’s first run on the ocean sold out in October of 2022. This
is all despite the cruise industry’s per-passenger carbon emissions more than
double that of airlines.
Cruise Lines International Association predicts that passenger volume will hit
36 million in 2024, which is up around twenty percent from pre-pandemic records
set in 2019. Cruise-related emissions plummeted to nearly zero during the
COVID-19 pandemic-related pause in sailing, but by August of 2021 the industry
had not only returned to pre-pandemic emissions, but exceeded those numbers.
Climate Trace says that new heights have been reached, nearly six percent
higher emissions from cruising as compared to before 2020.
While many cruise ship companies have publicly committed to carbon neutrality
by 2050, there doesn’t seem to be much effort in the present day to reach those
goals. Royal Caribbean has committed to build at least three more “Icon-class”
ships for its fleet in the near future, each weighing over 200,000 tons, and
powered by liquid natural gas.
The
Icon Of The Seas has two giant 307-ton LNG tanks onboard to power its six
Wärtsilä-built 14-cylinder 4-stroke engines making 121,400 horsepower combined.
All that power will get the
Icon up to its top speed of 25 miles per hour.
Allegedly these engines are the most fuel efficient engines on the market, and
Wärtsilä brags about “low exhaust gas emissions,” though doesn’t give
consumption numbers.
Liquid natural gas is touted by the cruise industry as one of the greenest
fuels on the planet. And compared to the bunker fuel these companies have been
burning for decades, it might be a step in the right direction. LNG cuts sulfur
and nitrogen oxide emissions significantly, and many claim the effect is a 30
percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Unfortunately for the world, cruise ships running on natural gas sometimes leak
methane directly into the atmosphere, which is around 80 times more potent a
greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. A 2023 investigation concluded that ships
switching to LNG was a net detriment to the climate. It doesn’t bode well,
then, that Royal Caribbean has a history of dumping chemicals, and was given an
“F” report card for its fleet by the non-profit organization Friends Of The
Earth.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, an average cruise ship emits
more soot per day than 1 million cars. In fact, cruise ships make up just one
percent of the world’s large boats, but account for more than six percent of
the world’s black carbon (soot) emissions. Black carbon isn’t good anywhere,
really, but it’s particularly bad in the Arctic, where it settles on snow and
ice, accelerating the rate at which glaciers melt."
Via Diane A.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
