This project, for Science 9H and ADL 10, was all about climate change and Info Fluency. We learned about what is causing climate change, while also learning about Info Fluency.
Inquiry Question: What can cruise ships do to reduce their affect on climate change?
Answer 1)
Every day 255,000 gallons of gray water, which isn’t as bad as just dumping the water straight into the ocean, but it is causing a major problem to our planet. Water from laundries, showers, sinks and dishwashers, are poured right into the ocean by mid to large sized cruise ships. This causes pollution to the surrounding waters. Furthermore, cruise ships generate over 15 gallons of toxic chemical waste each day. These toxins can come from on-board dry cleaning, painting and more.
My solution to this problem is, having guests pay just a bit more money than they had to previously. By paying more money for dry cleaning their clothes, or paying 5 extra dollars per person to get a room, or 1 extra dollar for a deck chair, the cruise ship companies would be able to afford soot filters, which help marginally improve their environmental impact because of the about of fuel they burn. Soot filters, also known as diesel particulate filters, are designed to remove matter of soot or exhaust gas burned from the engine. This way the cruise ships would be keeping the environment safe.
Answer 2)
The Clean Water Act requires industries and cities to have a permit to treat and dispose of wastes. By also requiring monitoring, testing, examining, and reporting, these permits help ensure that sewage treatments are effective, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This system also gives citizens the right to sue to enforce provisions of the law when necessary. Cruise ships are not required to have permits to dump raw sewage into the oceans, and they do not have to test or report what they release into the oceans. This creates a massive problem because the cruise ships are abusing the lack of laws surrounding waste disposal. The US has created a law that states that cruise ships are allowed to only dump cleaned waste within 3 miles of the coast of the States, however, any other waste that is 3+ miles away from the coast does not have to be cleaned. If you think about it, all the waves that are coming from the middle of the ocean are pushing waste from hundreds of cruise ships onto the shore, and you sometimes swim in it!
The solution I have come up with for this issue is to have more specific and useful laws surrounding cruise ship dumping. Laws including having a soot filter as a requirement, cleaning waste 10 miles from shore, so as to not have E. coli growing in the water. We have E. coli in our very own neighborhood. False creek is a body of water in Vancouver, which is now closed off for swimming because of boaters, and fishermen, and other boats, dumping their waste into the water. Overall there need to be stronger laws fighting against dumping waste into the water in the oceans and everywhere.
Solution 3)
My last solution is to separate oils from the water in order to reduce levels of oils that will go into the water after dumping. There has already been research done to prove that this will work, however the cruise ship companies continue to bypass the laws and recommendations. The companies will install the machines to separate the oils from the water, but they don’t often run them. My solution to this problem is to have monitors and security cameras that go right to the government and the monitoring system goes into a database that will alert the government when the machines are turned off. The government can then decide whether or not they want to do something about it or just leave it for then.
Conclusion
My conclusion is that the cruise ships need to install soot filters so that they can reduce their carbon foot print, the government could also enforce more specific laws to make it so that the cruise ship companies have to do what’s right for the planet, and not what will get them the most money. Last but not east, the government and the companies have to work together to make it so that al cruise ships are separating oils from the waters before dumping.
Bibliography:
McMaster, Andrew. “Even ‘Green’ Cruise Ships Are Polluting the Earth at Incredible Rates.” Global Citizen, Minderoo Foundation, 6 Sept. 2017, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/cruise-ships-polluters-ocean-sewage-particulates/.
Savitz, Jackie. “Oceana Works To Stop Cruise Ship Pollution.” Oceana, 27 Jan. 2003, oceana.org/press-center/press-releases/oceana-works-stop-cruise-ship-pollution.
Vora, Shivani. “Travel Tackles Climate Change.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 Dec. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/12/02/climate/travel-tackles-climate-change.html.
“Learn About Climate Change & The Impacts of River Cruises.” Aqua Expeditions, 20 Feb. 2018, www.aquaexpeditions.com/blog/fun/climate-change-affects-us-can/.
Vidal, John. “The World’s Largest Cruise Ship and Its Supersized Pollution Problem.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21 May 2016, www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/21/the-worlds-largest-cruise-ship-and-its-supersized-pollution-problem.
Process for ADL 10:
- What questions did you need to research in order to research your project?
Are cruise ships harmful to the environment?
How do cruise ships pollute the ocean?
What does Royal Caribbean (one of the cruise ships companies) do to prevent climate change?
Why don’t cruise ships use soot filters?
What is a soot filter?
What kinds of laws are there for cruise ship operating companies?
What causes the most problems for climate change on board cruise ships?
What are some impacts cruise ships have on marine life?
- What new or familiar digital tools did you use?
The most used digital tool that I utilized was, obviously, google. I tried to use methods like YouTube, but they didn’t work for me. I also used Easy Bib for my citations.
- What was the process you used to investigate the topic?
The process I used was to find as much information as I could, and then to simply jot down as many notes about the information as I could. This helped me to keep all the information in the same spot. This also helped me to remember all the information and ideas I had for the solutions I presented.
- How did you verify and cite the information you found?
The way I verify is by going on multiple sites and making sure they all have the same information. I also look for a .org, a .edu, or a .gov, because these all mean that those are the most trustworthy. .org means that it is an organization who has created the article, .edu usually means its coming from a school, or a university, and .gov means it is a government article which indicates that the top researchers have looked for this information and reported it to a government. I cited the information I found with Easy Bib with MLA format. Easy Bib helps you cite the information that you find, with the author, date, and article name included in the citation. I have Easy Bib linked above.
- How did the process of completing the challenge go? What could you have done better?
The process of completing went pretty well, knowing about how to cite, and find the right information saved me a lot of time and energy. Overall, I think the only thing I could have done better would be to use more sources to collect more data, and to write down some questions I could ask beforehand, and not just on the spot.
I like how much information you have in your post. I didn’t realize that cruise ships dump so much waste into the water and I agree with your stance in this matter. In Solution 3 you say that the cruises have to install camera’s so the government can make sure that the oil separating machine is always on, but cruise ships are registered in different countries with different laws, some of which they wont be able to enforce. There is also the problem where the cruise can turn off the camera and say it wasn’t getting a signal. That is also a lot of cameras to monitor which I don’t think can all be monitored at the same time. Otherwise it was a great post and I agree with everything.
What an awesome idea to look at how cruise ships could make changes to mitigate their effect on the climate. You are asking for cruise ships to charge more for water use to support soot filters. Great idea. You also mentioned cameras and monitors to make sure that cruise ships filter the oil out from their water waste. Might some view this an an invasion of privacy?
Another thought: the first sentence on a post is so important. It sets your reader up for what is to come and sets the tone for how the rest of the post is read. Read your first sentence. Something needs to be changed.
Great job, though!
Thank you Mr. Robinson,
in response to your question about the cameras, I personally do not think it would be an invasion of privacy, since it these particular cameras would only be around the machinery in the ship. Cameras would not be placed anywhere besides around the filters, so I do not see any privacy problem.
As for your other comment, I like to put a brief explanation of what the assignment is at the top of my posts so that people who do not know what the assignment is about can understand it quickly.
Thank you for your response!