I've never understand why the problem of "the X largest ships contribute a shocking amount of pollution" hasn't been solved. It can't be that hard given the limited number of ships, right?
NYC is not uniformly rich at all. It is only the astounding wealth of the richest New Yorkers that makes it appear so. Who exactly is affected in NYC depends on the dock and wind direction. I have read (somewhere I forget) that air quality is in the mean worse in the Bronx; by no means is the outcome of this affecting all classes uniformly.
That’s not quite true. Cruises can be downright cheap compared to a comparable period of time at a hotel. Some of the cheapest cruises of all leave NYC, spend two nights at sea, and return.
No problem. Heat and electricity from shore based nuclear power plants can be used to manufacture synthetic carbon neutral fuels. Run the ships on that. The technology has existed for decades, it's just more expensive than burning fossil fuels.
But installing nuclear reactors in modern commercial vessels is a total non starter for cost and security reasons.
Many places have rules and the ships switch to a cleaner fuel in these waters, but when they're on the open sea they have no incentive to not use bunker fuel.
