Time for Carnival to Keep Our Oceans Clean

Time for Carnival to Keep Our Oceans Clean

MGMT591: Leadership & Organizational Behavior

Date: June 29, 2019

Professor Linda Wayerski

Team Organizational Thunder

Introduction

As a Corporation, Carnival, operates and maintains is the largest fleet of ships in the industry operating 105 vessels connecting 700 ports around the globe.  Carnival Corporation includes 11 brand names with some being the most well-known cruise line companies, including its namesake, Carnival, Princess, and Holland America along with many others (Klein, 2010).  Under their charter, Carnival Corp has obtained 53 percent of the US market by offering the most affordable cruises as well as some of the more elegant cruise ship offerings.  The fact that Carnival Corporation is able to offer cruises to passengers of all economic status around the world enabled them to capture 47 percent of the passengers (Klein, 2010).  In the industry, Carnival Corporation operates six of the top ten cruise companies.

Issues with Carnival were initially identified and Carnival was placed on Probation in 2014 (Klein,2009) During the time of probation, Carnival has continued to dump what can only be considered hazardous waste into the oceans and seas around the world (Klein,2009)

Operating 11 companies within the industry Carnival owns six of the top ten world cruise lines.  Most of which have been identified as dumping this waste (Klein,2010) The fines associated with the incidents are extremely high and as of current day, Carnival stands to pay in excess of $40M for the actions of their employees with more stringent looming if these actions continue.  A Federal judge has indicated that if this continues, Carnival will be banned from all United States ports.  This will be catastrophic to the operating budget for the Corporation.  Not only are the Federal courts investigating the allegations of Carnival the US Environmental Protection Agency is also involved since 2008 and are investigating these charges.

Solutions are always a talking point where greenhouse emissions are involved.  Carnival Corporation is one of the largest polluters, doing little to treat the exhaust from the engines as well as the dumping of oily waste and bilge water overboard.  

The Problem with Carnival

Carnival Corporation being at the top and the industry leader, what is driving a Federal Judge to investigate their actions, while on probation for improper disposal of oily waste across numerous ports worldwide? What action, is this federal judge threatening to imprison Carnival executives? What will these fines represent and just how serious is the offence?  According to “A cruise ship is not the most environmentally friendly form of transportation.  On average, a cruise ship discharges three times more carbon emissions than aircraft, trains, and passenger ferries”(Klein, 2009).  “The issue of pollution from cruise ships became widely known when Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines pleaded guilty in July 1999 to twenty-one counts of dumping oil and hazardous chemicals and lying to the U.S. Coast Guard (Klein, 2009).  “Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines used our nation’s waters as its dumping ground, even as it promoted itself as an environmentally ‘green’ company by routinely falsified the ships’ logs.  Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has received a number of air and water pollution violation notices from the State of Alaska from 2007 to 2009, but is not the only cruise industry violator” (Klein, 2009).