With the help of a marine scientist, we’ve estimated the climate impact of the internet’s favorite cruise.
regal Caribbean’snine - month cruisehas garnered plenty of headlines ( includingat this publication ) for the novel nature of such a long ocean trip , and all of the inevitable quirkiness that hail with such an epic journeying . But that journeying , as captivating as it is , is still a commercial sail . And commercial cruises are n’t known for being peculiarly not bad for the surround .
Much brusk cruises can produceserious carbon emission — so much so that the sail industry has face atmospheric pressure to make major changes . So far , those changes have been slow to come , even as the industrycontinues to expandin the speedy post - pandemic traveling recovery era .
According to anInternational Council for Clean Transportationreport from 2022 , commercial cruising is in reality worse for the satellite than fly . Thrillist reached out to Bryan Comer , the author of that report and the theater director of the Marine Program at the ICCT , to help us specify the environmental impact ofthe Ultimate World Cruiseas it traverses the world via Royal Caribbean ’s Serenade of the Seas mega - ship , take stops in 60 commonwealth at 150 ports of call .
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Comer told Thrillist he can " understand the appeal of an around - the - macrocosm adventure onboard a cruise ship " but said that the ships are more harmful to the planet than fly , " not to mention the food waste product , sewerage , and other pollution that these ships generate . "
But just how harmful is harmful ? Comer ’s figuring for decide the environmental impact of any cruise relies on three numbers : the number of passengers aboard the ship , the aloofness the cruise is traveling , and the average carbon emissions for the ship per rider per nautical mile .
Sounds easy , right ? Well , Comer explain , that ’s not exactly the case — for the nine - calendar month sail or any sail .
" There ’s a good deal of variability in annual CO2 loudness for cruise ship because their itinerary touch how much fuel they consume , " Comer explained . " We would n’t be extremely confident in the exact amount of CO2 this cruise would pass off but you could apply this data to ballpark an society of order of magnitude . "
Still , breaking this down for the Ultimate World Cruise , the ship has a rider capacity of 2,476 people , and the most recent reported data for the Serenade of the Seas unwrap its ordinary C emissions to be 540 gram of CO2 per passenger , per maritime mile .
Further complicating matter is the fact that the Ultimate World Cruise pose some unique challenges when it comes to solving this equation . First , we are relying on a self - report carbon emissions per passenger number from Royal Caribbean which date back to 2019 , and may not be the most exact theatrical of the sail note ’s current practice .
Secondly , for such a wide-ranging route between hitch at port and sailing , and at vary speed , getting an exact figure for how far the Serenade of the Seas will be traveling is highly tricky . Already , the routehas change significantly since its launching in December 2023 , due to geopolitical issues .
majestic Caribbean declined to provide the mileage of the sail ’s journeying , so settle the space require a bit of hypothesizing . The ship is sailing around the whole globe , a distance which is 21,600 nautical miles . But the itinerary also involves traveling both north and south , like when the ship move down to the watersnear Antarctica . To determine a rough distance , I used anautical mile calculatorand imputed 25 of the major stops ( of 150 ) around the world to square up gliding distance . This give me a rough estimate of 40,526 maritime mile .
go back to Comer ’s pattern , 540 grams of CO2 multiplied by the ship ’s passenger mental ability of 2,476 people multiplied by full mileage traveled — which was hypothesized — of 40,526 nautical miles equal 54,185 metric tons of CO2 .
Over 54,185 measured tons of CO2 is equal to about 12,000 gasolene - powered passenger fomite driven for one yr , harmonise to theEnvironmental Protection Agency . And the Serenade of the Seas is not outfitted with engineering that will offset this befoulment in a in truth significant direction . Royal Caribbean ’s unexampled ship , Icon of Seas , is also more technologically advanced . It is been powered liquid natural gas ( LNG ) as oppose to traditional fuel , and also boast stacks of energy - deliver bar on display board such as smart heating and airing , and a more advanced wastewater intervention organization . divertimento of the Seas is importantly older than its sis , Icon .
" This ship is 20 years sure-enough and it ’s fitted with an exhaust scrubber , " Comer explained . " That sound keen , but scrubbers change zephyr befoulment into water pollution . scrubbing brush work by spraying seawater into the exhaust fumes to help keep down atomic number 16 emissions , but the pick up urine , which is acidic and contains carcinogens like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and heavy metals like mercury and lead , is normally discharged overboard . "
Put simply : Poisonous slime is still travel into the ocean , even if it ’s not live on into the atmosphere . So this older ship , on this nine - calendar month journey , is emitting the same amount of CO2 as some 12,000 cars on the road for the entire year . Is it creditworthy for a company to offer customers a travelling experience with such an utmost environmental impact , given the current rate of clime change and the call for reduced C emission to speak the job ?
" It would be one thing if the ship was the most modern , ecologically well-disposed ship ever to voyage , but it ’s not , " Comer said . " With some passengers paying over $ 100,000 for this world cruise , you would think there would be a grocery for building a new ship that runs on green hydrogen and fuel cells rather than dodo heavy fuel oil . "
