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Comment by ReactiveJelly | Hacker News Reader

Might be better off just instituting pollution taxes and not letting ships fly whatever flags they want or burn whatever oil they want. Then if cruises can clean up, good for them.

I can't read the article btw

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There are some things that are just plain Bad and should be illegal, like theft.

There are other things that aren't really great for us, but we (well, some of us) derive pleasure from them, or some of us do. Like alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, eating beef, and so on.

The best thing to do with those is not outlaw them, but tax them.

Pollution taxes are country by country. Cruise ships just change the country’s flag they fly to avoid them.

Tax them where the pollution takes place not matter the flag

I suspect ports need the cruise ships more than the cruise ships need ports.

Depends on the port. It's not like there are two Venices in the world.

This is harder than it seems, there are international treaties that "regulate" (read: de-regulate) what companies can do regardless of the country.

Also in many cases a particular city, say Barcelona or Venice, may want to regulate, but pollution laws are typically at the regional or national level.

Maybe Barcelona and Venice should enlist privateers to sink any cruise ships that come too close.

That is Hard To Do, and not the only problem with the industry (the other glaring one is labor).

yes, but is it actually harder than Stopping Cruises, which is what the activists apparently want? Obviously not.

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