[EXTERNAL] Comments for Port Commission meeting, July 9
Patrick McKee <patmckee@sbcglobal.net>
Tue 7/9/2024 10:21 AM
To: Commission-Public-Records <commission-public-records@portseattle.org>; Mohamed, Hamdi
<Mohamed.H@portseattle.org>; Felleman, Fred <Felleman.F@portseattle.org>; Cho, Sam <Cho.S@portseattle.org>; Calkins,
Ryan <Calkins.R@portseattle.org>; Hasegawa, Toshiko <Hasegawa.T@portseattle.org>
WARNING: External email. Links or aachments may be unsafe.
Commissioners -
We’re here again: the hottest Seattle July 9 on record. Around the world, each of the previous 13 months has been the hottest on record.
Daily intimations of catastrophe, like yesterday’s report about the ongoing climate-related collapse of Washington’s iconic cherry growing
industry, fail to break through the anodyne normalcy of business as usual. The Port needs a more comprehensive dashboard.
Judging by the new 10 year berthing agreement with repeat environmental offender and corporate criminal Carnival Cruise, business as
usual remains the order of the day at the aspiring Greenest Port in North America. What a tragic missed opportunity to actually, in the
Commissioner’s words, change the game now, when it matters: to address cruise GHG reductions, a scrubber ban, expanded discharge-
free zones, the overwhelm at small destination ports. It only gets harder and more expensive from here.
Just last week the Canadian parliament passed anti-greenwashing legislation prohibiting deceptive “claims that promote the environmental
and ecological benefits of a … business activity that are not based on adequate and proper substantiation.” Enforcing this sort of policy at
the Port might get uncomfortable; trumpeting the greenest cruise fleet while carbon emissions increase year over year is inherently such a
claim.
In May, the City of Edinburgh banned from city advertising spaces ads for cruise, airlines and airports, fossil fuel companies, and gasoline
cars. They explained that “the promotion of high-carbon products is incompatible with net zero objectives,” and that reaching the city’s
climate targets “requires a shift in society’s perception of success”. We can’t change the game in any meaningful way until we acknowledge
this.
Port of Seattle, follow these leads. Get out of the cruise greenwashing business. No more international promotional expenditures, no more
hosting CLIA conferences, no more web pages touting “cruise accomplishments in sustainability”. What message might that send to
corporate cruise about the seriousness of your commitment regarding climate goals? To the tourism-consuming public? Or to staff
negotiating future lease agreements?
Thank you,
Patrick McKee
323.336.3651
member, Seattle Cruise Control
7/9/24, 10:55 AM
Mail - Commission-Public-Records - Outlook
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