Cruise ships are back. And it's a catastrophe for the environment | Kim Heacox

Cruise ships kill whales, leak gray water, and are largely exempt from US taxation. When they violate the law, they pay the equivalent of a parking ticketDecades ago, when I worked as a ranger in Alaska's Glacier Bay national park, each cruise ship that entered the bay carried hundreds of passengers. Today, they carry thousands. They don't look like ships any more. They look like the boxes the ships came in, huge floating milk cartons - ponderous and white.But once they get moving, they're a force. One that occasionally strikes whales. Continue reading...