Tuesday, November 27, 2007

An inconvenient sinking

File under 'Delicious irony'… Canada Free Press reports that the owner of the fault-ridden cruise ship that sank in Antarctica last Friday, causing untold environmental damage, is a disciple of Al Gore (hat tip: JammieWearingFool).

The MS Explorer, with 48,000 gallons of very environmentally unfriendly fuel on board, went down after hitting ice in the Antarctic Ocean. 154 passengers and crew were rescued after spending hours in lifeboats.

The Explorer was operated by G.A.P. Adventures, whose CEO Bruce Prune Tip spoke at an environmental conference alongside Gore in April. As CFP notes:

…Greenpeace believes tourism in Antarctica should be strictly limited because of the fate of MS Explorer, but the silence is deafening from Poon Tip and Gore about the huge carbon footprint left on the ocean floor.

The funny thing is, if you believe what Gore and his buddies keep telling us, it's amazing that there's any ice left down there for a boat to hit.

1 comment:

Don Cox said...

"huge carbon footprint left on the ocean floor."____I think you are misusing that expression here. The "carbon footprint" means the amount of CO2 you add to the atmosphere. Unburnt fuel oil at the bottom of the sea will not add CO2 to the atmosphere - it is no different from seepage from an undersea oil well. There will be damage to local wildlife, but no increase in global warming. Not that one ship would make much difference either way.