Worried For Air Pollution, 50 Thousand Residents Of The Petition Of Settings For Cruise Ships In Marseille

Illustration of a cruise ship at Marseille Harbor. (Wikimedia Commons/Roman Hofer)

JAKARTA - More than 50,000 people have signed a petition to ban polluting cruise ships from Marseille, France.

The French city is one of Europe's busiest cruise ship ports, attracting nearly two million passengers per year. But when air pollution worsens, many local residents feel enough.

In July, Mayor Beno Lihat Payan launched a petition to ban cruise ships from stopping.

"Meditrania is slowly dying, but lobbyers on giant cruise ships want to continue to pollute it," he tweeted last month, citing Euronews September 1.

In Marseille, like it or not, we will continue to fight."

To date, more than 52,000 people have signed a petition to stop the Mediterranean from pollution from cruise ships.

Does the cruise ship cause air pollution? Cruise ships are known to 'donate' about 10 percent of the air pollution in Marseille.

In 2018, a study by air quality monitoring group Atmosud revealed that emissions from cruise ships exceeded car emissions in the city.

"A ship that docked for an hour in Marseille is equivalent to 30,000 vehicles traveling at a speed of 30 km/h in Marseille, for an hour," said▁bau Piga of Atmosud.

The impact of pollution varies depending on weather conditions.

"For marine pollution, we especially look at the plume effect, which means the impact is moving and determined by the direction of the wind," Piga explained.

"When we are in this clump of pollution, we will have very high concentration," he said.

The toxic concentration of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particles can have harmful health consequences.

Meanwhile, Michnnele Rauzier, a local resident who has lived in a port area for years, has seen firsthand the impact of the pollution.

"In this neighborhood we have healthy people in good condition, not smokers - who died of respiratory cancer, and that's becoming more common," he said.

"So we are very worried," he said.

Will cruise ships be banned in Marseille? Marseille isn't the only city to reply to air pollution from cruise ships.

In 2021, Venice banned large cruise ships from its lagoon. Earlier this year, Barcelona announced they would collect 'pollution tax' on cruise ship tourists.

But in Marseille, local maritime unions have concerns about a campaign to regulate the industry.

The city's economy relies heavily on cruise ships, said Alain Mistre, UMF president (Maritime and River Union of Marseille Fos).

"Marseille is very popular, the restaurant owner told me a few days ago that there has been 20 percent more business since cruise ship passengers and crew members returned," he explained.

"So it's really a financial gift," continued Mistre.

It is known, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the shipping industry accounted for around 350 million euros per year for the local economy.

Mistre emphasized that 'green' shipping technology makes the industry more environmentally friendly. However, the collective movement of anti-pesiar 'Stop Cruises' disagrees.

"For us, the solution is to stop shipping. We think that this industry is structurally not in accordance with our world," said activist Rémy Yves.

"We can find greenwashing and adaptation solutions, (but) in reality we will have mass tourism that is completely against everything, in terms of resource consumption," he concluded.