I would say the very second passenger car traffic exceeds the environmental impact of the cruise industry. How much environmental damage does Carnival Cruise Lines do compared to all the highway traffic in the United States? We’re talking an entirely recreational industry here, if all cruise ships disappeared tomorrow society would keep right on rolling. Cases of norovirus would decrease.
You want passenger rail to increase in the United States? Great. Let’s start with Amtrak’s website. I live within walking distance of an active Amtrak station. Several times in my life I’ve had a want or need to travel cross country, and it occurred to me “I wonder if I could take the train.” The answer, inevitably, is no. I go to Amtrak’s website, pick a starting station and a destination station, and usually they outright can’t plan a trip between those locations. Not even capable of saying things like “take the Silver Star to Grand Central station in New York, wait 8 hours, then take the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago.” It proved to be less work on my part to drive, fly as a passenger on an airliner, and fly as pilot of a Cessna, than take the train in this country.
![[meme] Car brains, citing vague "freedom of movement," often say that it should be OK to run over protesters on highways. In turn, it should be legal to set fire to cars parked in bike lanes.](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/b6058a64-70f8-45b0-8431-9b4597d43e94.jpeg){kind=link}
At what point do carbrains become liable for destroying the environment?
I would say the very second passenger car traffic exceeds the environmental impact of the cruise industry. How much environmental damage does Carnival Cruise Lines do compared to all the highway traffic in the United States? We’re talking an entirely recreational industry here, if all cruise ships disappeared tomorrow society would keep right on rolling. Cases of norovirus would decrease.
You want passenger rail to increase in the United States? Great. Let’s start with Amtrak’s website. I live within walking distance of an active Amtrak station. Several times in my life I’ve had a want or need to travel cross country, and it occurred to me “I wonder if I could take the train.” The answer, inevitably, is no. I go to Amtrak’s website, pick a starting station and a destination station, and usually they outright can’t plan a trip between those locations. Not even capable of saying things like “take the Silver Star to Grand Central station in New York, wait 8 hours, then take the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago.” It proved to be less work on my part to drive, fly as a passenger on an airliner, and fly as pilot of a Cessna, than take the train in this country.
And what part of that is my personal fault?
Oh, well, if others are worse then I guess you’re not doing anything wrong.
If you’ve got to lose weight, you cut out the fat, not the muscle.
If you care about the environment, target the worst, least necessary things first. You don’t genuinely care about the environment though.
Cars not only kill the planet, but they are erode society so they are far worse than cruise ships imo.