The Super Rich Are Cruising the Arctic’s New Passageway as the World Burns
If you like articles that lampoon selfish people, you can’t go wrong with this.
Another fairly obvious way of looking at this subject: the rich and powerful people on this planet, i.e., those who have the capacity to do something about the impending catastrophe associated with climate change, are fiddling while Rome’s burning. It’s both absurd and nauseating at the same time.
Another cruel irony: the oil companies love all this melting ice; it reduces the cost of extracting crude.
You might make the same comment regarding the rich and famous jetting around the world…
Not only the rich and famous.
My sister and her husband often take long trips, including trips to Europe, yet become upset if, while I am visiting them, fail to turn off a light if I will be out of a room for only a few minutes. I suppose that their Toyota Prius compensated to some extent for the CO2 emitted on their trips. They also take the bus frequently instead of driving.
I guess that few people are entirely consistent. Perhaps the “rich and famous” are buying carbon offsets.
Craig,
Your observation about the iniquities of arctic cruises, is about as valid as your emotive picture of a starving polar bear cut off from the distant shore on a shrinking iceberg.
Passengers on large cruise liners are mostly retirees. The taxes, fees, employment and economic wealth these folk generate has been very beneficial for the entire Arctic region.
The Liners themselves are leading the transition away from heavy marine grade fuels and newer vessels are fitted with cutting edge technology designed to enhance environmental best practice.
For example, the advent of large scale tourism to the outer Hebrides has permitted the return of several once thought extinct specials of Eagles and other birds of prey. Whale Sharks and the rare giant Basking sharks have returned, while the populations of many other wildlife has recovered. The advent of tourism has allowed the replacement of diesel and fuel oil power by Wind co-ops and Geo-thermal. All over the arctic circle tourist cruises have proved very beneficial to conservation efforts.
It’s obvious you have very little, or very misconceived knowledge of the Arctic’s Geo-physics or the habits of Arctic wildlife.
Nor does abusing any section of society with claims of “selfish” when promoting environmental action, do anything other than alienate all those who recognise such nonsense as thinly veiled, leftist propaganda coated with a “green” veneer.
The misuse of environmental issues to further the ends of outdated socialist political agenda, is neither honest or effective, just counter-productive.
Here’s another example: Polar Bears are not in any danger. The Polar Bear population has been rapidly expanding in recent years. The Bears starve when the ice is too thick since they can’t catch the seals which constitute their main diet. Bear over population is more of a problem than extinction (especially if you’re a seal)
Polar Bears are terrific swimmers, Bears often undertake aquatic journeys of 500 klm or more. Over the millennia the arctic shelf has often retreated and advanced, and despite all the dire predictions, there is no evidence that the arctic cap is behaving any differently than within historic boundaries.
Interestingly, the Antarctic ice shelf has actually increased, although a little lopsided.
Berating a few tourists on a cruise liner is not helpful when promoting care for the environment. The message just comes across as a bitter, envious tirade against affluent retirees, and conveys the impression of a hypocritical use of environmental concern to further an extraneous an political agenda.
There are far more important issues..