16 Apr Earth Day Celebration and action – April 22, 2021

Join 350 Seattle, Seattle Cruise Control, Extinction Rebellion Seattle and a pod of happy dolphins at Pocket Beach in Myrtle Edwards Park from 11am – 12pm on 4/22 to celebrate Earth Day and celebrate the absence of noisy and polluting cruise ships from the Salish Sea. Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/462738695145493

Festivities will include music, dancing, and a press conference with the dolphin pod. We will be joined by kayaktivists on the water with banners! Please plan to wear a mask for this socially distanced celebration! Despite a stated goal of being “the greenest port in North America”, Port of Seattle Commissioners continue to praise the cruise business’s supposed economic benefits to the region while refusing to do a real examination of the impacts on climate, marine life, water quality and community health. The Port of Seattle is currently trying to expand SeaTac Airport, and if the Alaska cruise market makes it through the pandemic, hopes to unshelve plans to build an additional cruise terminal near Pioneer Square at T-46. The Port is also trying to expand Seattle Harbor for ultra-large container ships. This will exacerbate the noise and disturbance from commercial shipping in the Salish Sea. Noise disrupts endangered orcas’ feeding because they need to echolocate salmon, their preferred prey. The project would also dredge up toxic contaminants as it deepens and enlarges the channel. Orcas starving and burning fat stores laden with chemicals is one reason for their low reproductive rates; this declining population of orcas is down to just 74 individuals. We are in a climate emergency and when it comes to fossil fuel intensive operations like cruising, shipping and air traffic, it’s time to admit that expansion could equal extinction and invest in healthy solutions instead of business as usual. To learn more about cruise ships visit Seattlecruisecontrol.org

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