A hundred people from different collectives (Stop cruises, Respirer tue, Attac, Greenpeace, and Alternatiba) gathered last Saturday, next to Marseille City Hall, to demonstrate against the pollution emitted by cruise ships , in anticipation of this summer’s maritime traffic. Cruises, responsible for 20% of nitrogen oxide emissions, are involved in the premature death of 2,500 people each year. To illustrate this, the demonstrators, dressed in black, sometimes equipped with gas masks, lay down on the ground with messages denouncing pollution “who kills”.
Vegetable garden fruits covered with black film
In the neighborhoods concerned, residents not only notice “itchy eye phenomena” regularly, but also the soiling by the pollution of the linen stretched out to dry, and of the vegetable gardens covered with a black film.
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According to the European Environment Agency, Marseille greatly exceeds the regulatory limits in terms of nitrogen dioxide emissions (set at 40 µg/m3, with annual average rates of 79 µg/m3). In this case, the neighborhoods most affected by this problem are the neighborhoods close to cruise ship docks and shipyards, but also to the highway and polluting industries, as is the case of the northern neighborhoods of the city.
Company diversion strategies
To continue to use heavy fuel oil, companies are diverting attention, explains Chantal Rouet, of the “Respirer tue” collective, in Le Point magazine. While the electrification of two quays is announced for 2025 by the Grand Port of Marseille, the demonstrators are worried about the delay in the project. But is this really the solution?
In addition, the creation of an ECA zone (pollutant emission regulation zone) in the Mediterranean, which would impose the use of a fuel whose sulfur content will be limited to 0.1%, against 0.5% today today is also a source of hope for the demonstrators. But it is only scheduled for 2025.