Yzabelle Bostyn
EXTINCTION Rebellion held a protest in Botafoc port, Ibiza, this Wednesday.
Some 12 activists planned the action in line with the arrival of three cruise ships: the Seven Seas Grandeur, the MSC Seaside and the Britannia.
The ships brought a total of 10,4000 tourists to the island, many of them British.
Photo: Extinction Rebellion Ibiza
Standing alongside friendly tour guides, they held posters reading: ‘Your luxury, our climate crisis’ and ‘Stop cruises’.
Then, they ask visitors if they know ‘how much contamination’ their trip causes or ‘how many visitors the small island of Ibiza receives each year.’
The environmental activist group has joined forces with Canviem el Rumb (Change direction), an collective of organisations campaigning for limits on tourism to the island.
According to spokesperson, Karen Killeen: “Cruise ships are extreme polluters, they produce four times as much contamination as all the cars on the continent,” she said.
“We’re in a climate crisis, so we should be decarbonising the industry, but instead cruises are increasing more and more.”
The group state tourists ‘should know the economic and social effects of their holidays’.
Photo: Extinction Rebellion Ibiza
“People should know the effects, both social and economic, of their holidays.”
Unlike many of the anti-tourism protests taking place throughout Spain, the ERI are friendly to visitors.
“We have to greet them with a smile,” one of the protestors, Marta, tells the Diario de Ibiza.
“I’m not going to have a go at them because it’s not their fault. The problem is the administrators aren’t regulating anything, they aren’t doing their job.”
According to the activists, Brits are normally ‘very polite and understanding’ of their cause.
