Climate activists disrupt Carnival’s new ‘Horizon’ cruise ship in NYC with banner protest

Stand.earth flies banner over cruise ship reading “Stop Carnival’s #DirtyShips”

NEW YORK, NY — Yesterday, climate activists with international environmental organization Stand.earth flew a plane banner over Carnival Cruise Line’s new ship “Horizon,” as it leaves New York City after a christening event. The plane banner read, “Stop Carnival’s #DirtyShips,” and is part of a campaign to call out the largest company in the cruise industry for its reliance on heavy fuel oil (HFO), the dirtiest fuel in the world. 
 
On Wednesday, the group also raised a protest banner from a boat positioned near the “Horizon” as it arrived in New York City and in the morning during its christening event in the afternoon.

VIEW PHOTOS/VIDEO HERE: http://bit.ly/carnival-dirty-ships

According to Stand.earth’s 2016 report on the cruise industry, over the last decade, the world’s largest cruise companies have rapidly increased their climate pollution (greenhouse gas emissions). As of 2015 self-reported data, Carnival Cruises, alone, had increased its climate pollution by 18% since 2005.

Carnival’s reliance on burning HFO creates enormous amounts of black carbon (or soot), causing huge problems for the Arctic ecosystem when it lands on sea ice and accelerates its melting. This intensifies the impacts of climate change in the region, and threatens species like polar bears and walrus that depend on the ice for survival. 

A spill of this thick, molasses-like residual oil would be a ecological disaster that could not be cleaned up, especially in harsh polar environments. That is why the International Maritime Organization had already banned HFO use in the Antarctic, and announced last month it is moving toward a similar ban in the Arctic – a move Stand.earth applauded, and urged HFO users like Carnival to heed.

“With every new ship, Carnival corporation expands its already enormous climate footprint and its consumption of the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet — heavy fuel oil,” said Kendra Ulrich, Senior Shipping Campaigner at Stand.earth. “Our climate is at a crisis point, and burning heavy fuel oil to power ships is like pouring gasoline on a wildfire. This ship, and the rest of Carnival’s global fleet, can burn cleaner fuels today. We are calling on Carnival to take immediate action to end its use of HFO and step up as a true climate leader.”

Media contact: Virginia Cleaveland, Press Secretary, Stand.earth, virginia@stand.earth, 510-858-9902 (US), 778-984-3994 (Canada)