Climate protesters meet cruise ship at port in Brittany dressed as polar bears

A polar bear, pictured here sitting on a glacier in the Arctic, lent its face to protestors who met a cruise ship as it docked in France this week. Photo / Getty Images

Environmental activists dressed as walruses, polar bears and other animals greeted the World Traveller ship as it docked at Douarnenez, Brittany earlier this week.

Approximately 80 protestors gathered at the demonstration, as the luxury ship with a 196-person capacity, owned by Atlas Ocean Voyages, arrived at port in France, Euronews reported. The group allegedly yelled “shame on you”, “you are not welcome and “go home” as the ship and many passengers aboard disembarked.

The group also chanted and banged pots, while one protestor played the tuba.

Les 200 passagers du World Traveller, paquebot en escale à Douarnenez ce dimanche, ont été accueillis par un concert de casseroles organisé par 60 à 70 manifestants anti-croisieres pic.twitter.com/0xcAuyv1Ex

— Dimitri L'hours (@DimitriLhours) October 8, 2023

Speaking to AFP, a French international news agency, one protestor said that the cruise ships “spend their time going back and forth between the poles to do last-chance tourism: see the last penguins, the last polar bears, the last icebergs. It’s indecent.”

Another said they were there “in support of the polar fauna, which is suffering from climate change and all the consequences of our way of life in this society”.

One of the passengers, Eric Scott, told AFP that the boos from the protest were a “useful educational experience”. He continued, “That’s one of the reasons we travel - to get perspectives from other places.”

On their website, Atlas Ocean Voyages offers trips for travellers to visit Antarctica, the Arctic, Iceland, Greenland and many other international locations. The company has also just announced new Antarctica expeditions for 2024 and 2025.

A study released in June this year by Transport & Environment, a European-based campaign group, found that 218 European cruise ships emitted more sulphur oxides than 1 billion cars in 2022 (4.4 times more than all of the cars in Europe).

Another study from Nature Communications, released in 2022, found that the black carbon content in snow surrounding popular shore tourist-landing sites is “considerably above background levels measured elsewhere in the continent”. The report also notes a surge in tourists visiting Antarctica in the 2019-2020 season.

Previously, protesters welcomed a ban on big cruise ships made in Venice, in an effort to “safeguard” the heritage site.

Protestors have held other demonstrations throughout Europe to draw attention to the climate crisis. Activists have thrown paint on a Monet painting and glued themselves to Roman statues. Geneva’s airport was briefly closed in May as climate protestors occupied a private jet tarmac. Most recently, protestors greeted the outspoken CEO of Ryanair by throwing a cream pie in his face when he touched down in Brussels.