Whilst ST3 may have started off as a attempt to make people aware of the environmental impact of cruises, just like some greenpeace campaigns, it went on too much and was more an example of how to successfully take over a twitter conversation using guerilla tactics.

This is not the only website/blog which has featured this twitter fued spilling over, it is getting ugly. It could certainly have been done more tastefully rather than in punk rock fashion getting in everyones face, or in the virtual world – their blogs.

A side note to NomadicMatt – I suspect being alive and planting a tree is more ‘green’ than being in the middle of a cremation, so I totally agree with you that assumptions on people shouldn’t be made It would have been nice to see how much the environment would have been mentioned if cruises wasn’t attacked so early on, however it’s now become the focus instead of the actual trip itself, and brought much more attention to Princess cruising than they ever hoped for.

What was we talking about again? Oh yes, should travel writers care about their envionmental impact?

Yes, but so should everyone, whether you are building eco lodges, running your own cruising company or writing about them both.

Sorry, Julie, but I think this is only partially accurate. I acknowledge that @soultravelers3 was the first to raise the environmental question specifically in connection to #followmeatsea on Twitter, although she was not the only one.

But all this was several days before the trip actually started, so there had not been any tweets about “yummy drinks, powdery beaches, crystalline waters” at this point.

Yes, Julie, this is accurate.

The conversation can not really move forward unless there is more honesty and less emotional charge and blame game around the THREE issues here: social media,environmental issues and comped travel.

I concede that I am not a perfect person, i could badly use an editor, I do believe everyone should toot there own horn, I can be too passionate and opinionated but one of my greatest attributes is my willingness to speak the truth as I see it even when no one else wants to and even when I will take all kinds of heat for doing that.

I was happy to hear that Chris Elliott also spoke out about the harm of Mega-cruise ship on Gary’s blog. It was interesting to hear how the cruise industry went after him when he wrote about them some years ago.

I concede that travel writers are in a hard position and understand that those who do press trips are very sensitive about it, but I do think it should be discussed.

As Chris said in this great post on the topc:

“But when trips are on the house, even the best journalists find it difficult to offer an objective report. And even if they accurately describe what they see, their experience may not be all that authentic, since they’re often getting red-carpet treatment from hotels, restaurants and travel bureaus seeking good coverage ”

“A story that’s written based on a press trip doesn’t quite have the credibility of one that isn’t,” she says. “A free trip colors the writer’s experience. We want the story to reflect the kind of trip a reader would take. And the more someone else pays for your trip, the less authentic it is.”

http://www.elliott.org/the-travel-critic/can-you-trust-a-travel-writer/

And as the NPR post that Kim talked about that IS very relevent to my mind, it’s not just press trips and it certainly isn’t about the people on that cruise who were good friends until the Twitter blowout happened:

The Scrumptious Lies of Travel Writing

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17804543

This information is even more true today, especially with Twitter and blogs and google making it all part of the record.

It’s also not just happening in travel as this same kind of heated discussion is going on in the mommy blogger community.

What we write and what we tweet has an impact. Not enough people spoke up before we went into Iraq ( and those that did got punished). Nor before the current financial crisis. Yes, money did influence what was written.

No, this is not on the same scale by any means, but the principal is the same. Social media and citizen journalists lets more voices into the conversation. Can’t we move past the drama and get to the essential question and look to more ways that we can make that triad work FOR all of us instead of against us?

I take these tweets of yours as part of the “pretending” game that tries to imply that Mega-cruisers are not the least sustainable travel method:

@everywheretrip
@soultravelers3 What about population? That is the worst environmental threat of all. I have no kids…

@everywheretrip: @davidhfe what about the carbon used the days not flying? The energy isn’t just for moving, it’s also living for a week

@everywheretrip: People who live in a CO2 spewing vehicles should not throw stones #followmeatsea

@everywheretrip: @davidhfe lift and thrust. Land and water transport don’t have to lift

You also said “You’d think if you really cared about something you’d write about it on your own website”

I have MANY times. Check out my posts about our experiences in Capri and Mykonos Town and this one for Earth Day that was very specific to Mega-cruise massive environmental harm:

http://www.soultravelers3.com/2009/04/family-travel-photohappy-earth-day.html

I also wrote about this on Travelrants blog on Impact of travel on the environment :

http://www.travel-rants.com/2009/04/23/earth-day-impact-travel-environment-debate/

There is no reason for name calling and anger. There are no good guys or bad guys, we just disagree.

1. It’s not controversial. To most of us here, the answer to the question “should travel writers care about the environmental impact” seems to be: “Yes, of course.”

2. The version of facts given in the summary of the Twitter conversation is not wholly accurate. Like Christine, I don’t have an agenda here either but I did watch it from the beginning. Replaying the Twitter debate here is pointless, and frustrating to see, but setting the record straight on what actually happened is useful. Especially since you and others say you didn’t know much about it and the article “cleared it up for you”.

Jeanne, I think this might be the root of the problem. I can see your argument that people look at hashtag streams and it’s nice to inject some balance into the debate. I can also see why the writers on the cruise thought it was directed at them.

You know that I largely agree with you on cruising and the environmental issues so I’m sympathetic to what you were trying to do. At the same time, had I been a writer on that cruise, I would have thought and felt that the tweets were directed at me.

Carlo, if you go back and re-read my comment, you will see that this was, in fact, my point!!!

Travellers and travel writers have additional impact and therefore responsibility but this is AS WELL AS (not instead of) the basic responsibilities of every human.

I’m glad you agree with me.