An image of the world's largest cruise liner, the Icon of the Seas, invited scorn rather than admiration for the $2 billion vessel on Reddit.
Given that the picture was posted on the r/Anticonsumption subreddit, it's not terribly surprising that the replies shared the original poster's disdain: "I can respect the technical achievement to create something like this, but it really is just a sad and scary icon of gluttony in the end."
"I JUST saw an ad for this lol. Can't imagine the amount of waste this puts out," another Redditor said.
Those concerns are well-founded, as the industry's environmental impact is as large as the ships themselves. A 3,000-passenger ship will generate enough sewage to fill 10 swimming pools every week. Discharges from cruise ships create dead zones that can no longer support marine life. Icon of the Seas carries up to 10,000 passengers and crew.
The cruise ship is one of many that have switched from diesel to liquefied natural gas (LNG), per the BBC. As a fuel source, LNG might release fewer pollutants than others, but it risks leaking methane, which has a negative warming effect on the Earth that is up to 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide.
Additionally, the noise pollution from large ships harms marine life. It disrupts migrations and reproductive cycles, and it can even be lethal to some species. For all the big talk operators make about making cruises more sustainable, it's mostly hot air.
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Another issue discussed in the comments was how the ships skirt any attempts at legislation, as one commenter noted: "They're all officially 'located' in random countries in order to duck US and EU law, so they'll just jump ship (pun intended) if any legislation is in danger of touching them."
"That's the thing that gets me too. They could make these things less of an environmental nightmare. They just won't, because it doesn't make them money," another user responded.
One commenter poked fun at its overt tackiness: "Looks like an overpriced nineties toy."
"Looks like a big hamster cage with those silly tunnels and stuff," another Reddit user wrote.
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