Experience Alaska’s Beauty without the Carbon Footprint


As discussed in a NY Times article from earlier this year, luxury cruise ships are detrimental to the environment, and when you’re looking to spend your vacation enjoying the natural beauty of Alaska, that’s a BIG no-no. There is an alternative: All Aboard Yacht Charters (vessel pictured), which caters to groups no larger than ten and promises to show travelers the real Alaska, “up close and personal.” While Alaska’s luxury cruise tourism has been suffering, here’s hoping that a small business like this can hold its own.

Enjoy an excerpt from the NY Times article below:

According to environmentalists, carbon dioxide emissions are just a drop in the ocean when it comes to eco problems on luxury liners. Most ships run on so-called bunker fuel, the cheapest and dirtiest fuel oil, which not only powers the vessel, but also all the amenities on board: restaurants, swimming pools and nightclubs among them. Royal Caribbean will launch its largest ship yet this year, the Oasis of the Seas with a capacity of 5,400 passengers, and its amenities will include a microclimate-controlled Central Park, with irrigation and drainage systems, as well as trees that will tower more than two and a half decks high.

Then there is the issue of waste. A one-week voyage on a large ship is estimated to produce 210,000 gallons of sewage, a million gallons of gray water (runoff from sinks, baths, showers, laundry and galleys), 25,000 gallons of oily bilge water, 11,550 gallons of sewage sludge and more than 130 gallons of hazardous wastes, according to figures supplied by the environmental group Friends of the Earth.