Corsica displays the record figure of 473 stops of cruise ships this year, including 227 for the city of Ajaccio alone.
Le Monde with AFP
Environmental activists asked for the establishment of quotas in the face of the multiplication of cruising and mega-yachts stops in Corsica, demonstrating, on Saturday September 10, before the Corsican Assembly in Ajaccio (Corse-du-Sud ).
More than a hundred militants of the Terra coordination, made up of environmental and health defense associations, brandishing “no to pollution” signs, “living healthy is a fundamental right” or ” Non-assistance to planet in danger, “castigated the growing rotations of these polluting ships around the island.
Criticizing the use for “recreational purposes” of “large quantities of hydrocarbons, a fossil energy which contributes very largely to climate change”, Muriel Segondy, spokesperson for the environmental defense association Guard, cited a report by the National Health Safety Agency (ANSES) of July 17, 2019, which “confirms with strong levels of evidence, the effects on health” of cruising stops.
A petition against cruise ships
The activist also stresses that “Ajaccio, as in Bastia, the economic justification of advanced cruises has not been demonstrated” and that “in all cases, she does not counterbalance the cost of impacts on health, on The environment and the living environment of the inhabitants “.
“While inflation awaits us and we are called to the greatest energy sobriety, according to [the Twitter account] Yacht Co₂ Tracker , Between September 3 and 9, 59 Luxury Yachts crossed around the Corsica, they consumed more than a million liters of fuel and produced a total of 2,667 tonnes of CO₂, including 719 tonnes of CO₂ near the island, “she said. Corsica displays the record figure of 473 stops of cruise ships this year, including 227 for the city of Ajaccio alone.
a Petition calling for the ban on cruise ships in Ajaccio in the face of pollution, comparable to actions launched in Marseille and around the Mediterranean, passed the CAP of 26,800 signatories on Saturday in a city on Saturday of around 71,000 inhabitants.
The discontent against cruise ships rises throughout the French Mediterranean coast, as was already the case in Spain or Venice (Italy), which prohibited these large liners in its historic center, classified in Unesco.