What Maersk isn’t talking about

Danish shipping conglomerate Maersk is in Los Angeles this week showing off its newest “green” shipping container powered by methanol. The company has invited members of the public to tour the ship, which it says will transform sustainable shipping. 

In a press release announcing the event, a Maersk executive said the new ship shows the company’s effort to create “sustainable supply chains.”

Meanwhile, Maersk continues to facilitate ecocide and genocide in Gaza.

Since October, Maersk has transported over $300 million of weapons components for the top 5 weapons manufacturers to the US for assembly. These weapons are then sent to Israel, to be used in a genocidal war against Palestinians.

Over the past ten months, Israel has used Maersk-delivered bombs and missiles to decimate olive groves and farms across Gaza. The bombing has contaminated groundwater with munitions and toxins and choked the sea on which Palestinian fishermen depend with sewage and waste. Air pollution in Gaza, where smoke and particulate matter fill the air at all times of the day, is a direct product of Maersk arms shipments. This is greenwashing in action. This is ecocide masquerading as socially conscious environmentalism.

Although Maersk’s transition to methanol may reduce some of the company’s emissions, it does nothing to end the extractive, colonial foundation of the shipping industry. It’s also worth noting that the company defines green fuels as fuels with at least 65% reductions in GHG emissions on a lifecycle basis compared to fossil fuels. Maersk’s newest ship is not a zero emissions ship, despite what some news reports have claimed.  

If Maersk’s methanol-powered ship is shipping fighter jet parts to Israel, we can’t call it environmentally conscious. A green mask on a corporation facilitating genocide is still a corporation facilitating genocide.