On our recent vacation, I got a first-hand look at cruise line greenwashing, and it isn’t pretty. Sadly, I think I’ve taken my last cruise vacation.
Welcome to the 131st edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a simple living challenge for the week. Along with cruise line greenwashing, this week’s edition looks at turning diapers into fertilizer, offsetting carbon emissions from cocoa, and robot umpires in big league baseball.
On my mind this week: Don’t be fooled by cruise line greenwashing
As I mentioned last week, my husband and I recently returned from a cruise vacation. Yes, you read that right. Michelle the environmentalist took a vacation on the worst form of transportation for the planet. A cruise ship.
I know. Hang on while I hang my head in shame.
I love cruising. This was my 3rd cruise vacation, although admittedly the first two were before I woke up to the damage humans are doing to the planet. This time I have no excuse. I knew the impact but went because it was a group thing and I didn’t want to miss out. FOMO strikes again!
So how bad is the impact?
The environmental impact of cruising
Friends of the Earth estimates a cruise vacation has 8 times the impact of a land-based vacation. And Energy Monitor indicates the impact of a cruise to be 3 times higher than flying to a destination and staying in a hotel for the same length of time.
Not surprisingly, the cruise industry doesn’t want you to know that. Cruise line greenwashing is alive and well. Royal Caribbean’s sustainability page claims they are “dedicated to sustaining the planet by improving energy efficiency, treating the water they use, and keeping waste from landfill.” But are they really? Friends of the Earth’s 2024 Cruise Report Card gives them a grade of D- and the ship we sailed on a D+.
While onboard Utopia of the Seas, I did see a couple of things that made me hopeful about the environmental impact of cruising:
- Utopia is a newer ship that’s powered by LNG (liquid natural gas). It’s still a fossil fuel but the impact is less than older diesel-powered ships.
- Royal Caribbean does a really good job with waste reduction. I saw very few single-use items on the ship.
But those steps forward literally feel like a drop in the ocean compared to the negative impact of cruising.
Could batteries and solar be the future?
Interestingly, while other cruise companies focus on LNG, Norwegian cruise company Hurtigruten plans to launch a zero-emissions cruise ship by 2030 that will be powered by 60MW batteries and retractable solar sails.
That’s promising but with the growing trend of other cruise companies to build mammoth ships like Utopia of the Seas, I don’t see a green energy trend catching on in the cruise industry.
No more cruising for me
I do love cruising. And if the cruise industry ever gets their environmental act together, I’ll be a regular cruiser. Until then—so likely forever—I’ll stick to more Earth-friendly vacation options.
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Three highlights of the week
It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:
- I finally got my payment options set up on my retirement coaching website and launched my workshop. Visit Second Life Vision for details.
- In the “H” instalment of the ABCD lunch series with my high school girlfriends, we went to the Cambridge Hungarian club. I enjoyed goulash, schnitzel and crepes. And I got some cabbage rolls to take out.
- Thursday night was the first jam session of the fall with my band. It felt amazing to be singing again.
Things I learned this week
Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:
Turning diapers into fertilizer
Disposable diapers are a huge environmental issue, making up about 1.5% of landfill waste in the United States—more than any other single product.
Seattle company Diaper Stork has been selling compostable diapers since 2023. More recently, it piloted a process to turn compostable diapers into biochar—a charcoal-like substance that can be used for fertilizer and other agricultural purposes and even to purify water.
(Source: The Tyee)
Offsetting carbon emissions from cocoa
I’m a chocolate lover, but cocoa is one of the most emissions-intensive products to grow thanks largely to deforestation.
New research shows that planting larger shade trees to shelter cocoa trees could entirely offset cocoa-related emissions in Ghana and Ivory Coast, without reducing production.
(Source: Carbon Brief)
Robot umpires coming in 2026
This week Major League Baseball announced the introduction of an Automated Ball/Strike system for the 2026 season. Human umpires will continue to make the initial call, but the batter, pitcher, or catcher can appeal a call to the robot.
If you’re concerned this process will slow down baseball games, each team has only 2 challenges per game, and MLB estimates the automated appeal process will take only 17 seconds.
(Source: PBS)
This week’s simple living challenge – Read more
Simplifying life is a big part of living more intentionally. With that in mind, I kicked off the year with 52 ways to simplify your life this year, including a downloadable checklist of weekly tasks.
This week’s challenge is to read more. Not only is it one of the most inexpensive forms of entertainment, but it’s good for your brain and offer endless opportunities for learning.
I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.
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I have never been on a cruise even though everyone raves about how wonderful they are. I just can’t accept the environmental aspect of it, plus I really don’t think I would enjoy that type of trip. Anyway – recently, friends of ours went on a cruise where they actually won 2 other ones. They wanted to give us one of the free trips, meaning that my wife and I would go for free. But the trip would have consisted of a flight to Florida on Thursday night, a day of travel on the boat on Friday, a day on an island Saturday, another day of travel on the boat on Sunday and a flight home on Monday morning. The green score on that vacation would’ve been quadruple F minus and I just couldn’t do it. I don’t think my friends are aware of the real reason why I am anti-cruise, or of how bad those ships are for the environment. I need to change that.
Good for you for refusing a free vacation, Todd. A 3-night cruise is too short. The group I went with is talking about planning another cruise. I’ve told them to count me out.
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Yikes. I’m still laughing about giving you a moment to hang your head in shame. Oh dear.
Love the diapers into fertilizer. You are so good at highlighting such interesting innovation! And congratulations on getting payment set up. Thanks, Michelle!
Thanks Wynne! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
Michelle! So happy to hear you’re back with the band…this makes me soooo happy. And as always, I appreciate your environmental insights and observations…this time about cruising. Thank you! 💝
Thanks Vicki! We have a new drummer, so on Thursday we had a great conversation about the kind of music we want to play. I said, “I just want to sing, so I will go along with whatever era others want to focus on.” Besides, it’s good for me to step outside my comfort zone and learn new music.
Enjoy your Sunday! 🤗
Love it…keep us posted! 💝😎💝
I will!
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Michelle, I am often negligent about commenting here but I do love your Sunday series and very often learn new things or get the scoop on what’s happening because I stay off most social media. So much good stuff this week, and I will give a shout out to Seattle on the diaper project, even though I am no longer in WA 🙂
Thank you, Deb. I try to keep the learnings I share positive. Some weeks it’s hard! Yes, there are good things happening in Seattle. On my post about walkable neighbourhoods, Wynne Leon shared how well Seattle scores. Fabulous!