In that even plastic rusts on Roatan, I think the typical Roatan native appreciation of mechanical maintenance will likely cause this foolish enterprise to be short lived. Yet it will be leaving an all-but permanent blemish on the land. After many years of aerial lift (ie: ski charlift) accident investigations, I can hardly wait for the next big Cruise Ship thread describing the horrors of a "death in paradise" to arise. Let's face it, the Pod People love an adventure! Living life on the edge is what will draw them to this all-but un-pronounceable Island of Rah-ahh-taahn.
I have a visceral disgust for anybody who would get on that thing; indeed, for anybody who would take a cruise ship anywhere--at least until I meet them, and assuming they're not my sister, who likes an occasional cruise.
The debate about development vs conservation will inevitably provoke value judgments. An Aggressor voyage is okay, but a Carnival Cruise is verboten? I was sitting on the deck of the Telita, bemoaning the development that was then just coming to Papua, and one of my shipmates pointed out how easy it was to decry development from my air-conditioned berth; it was another thing if you lived in a hut battling nature to squeeze out a subsistence.
So what is a reasonable standard to make development decisions by? As with any commonly held resource (and the Roatan "ambience" is commonly held, even if individual bits of it are not), sustainability ought to be a minimum standard. When you are discussing the sustainability of a destination's ambience it necessarily entails some subjectivity, but most would agree, I think, that a ski lift for overweight cruise-ship passengers (wouldn't the rest of them, if any, rather hike?
) is putting a serious dent in the sustainability of any island's ambience.
I haven't been to Cozumel in a long time, but at some point it will become Montego Bay, I think, and all of the benefits that accrued to the locals because of expanded tourism will be lost, and they'll still have the mess to try to live with. We live with zoning laws every day in developed nations--tacit acceptance that we have a common interest in weighing the impact of development. The islands that want a sustainable tourist industry will do the same.
