Toxic Trade News: Blue Lady's fate uncertain as activists to challenge SC http://ban.org/ban_news/2007/070917_fate_uncertain.html End of the Line http://www.foreignpolicy.com/issue_janfeb_2006/endoftheline1.html 1998 Pulitzer Prizes: The Shipbreakers http://www.pulitzer.org/year/1998/investigative-reporting/works/ Greenpeace: Ship Breaking http://www.greenpeace.org/india/campaigns/toxics-free-future/ship-breaking U.S. Maritime Administration: Information on Ship Disposal [pdf] http://www.marad.dot.gov/Ship%20Disposal/Update%20March%202007/Ship%20Disposal%20front.html Shipbuilding is truly an exhilarating activity to watch, and it has been a hallmark of technological endeavor and ingenuity for millennia. Fewer people might be familiar with the harrowing and dangerous task of ship breaking, though in recent years it has been receiving more coverage in the media. Today, a great deal of ship breaking takes place in countries like Bangladesh, Turkey, and India, and the work is tremendously difficult and there is frequently little or no workplace oversight. The environmental damage brought by ship breaking in the developing world can be, and frequently is, tremendous. Everything from radioactive material in fire alarms to tons of asbestos makes its way onto the beach and into the water, with predictably dire results for humans and animals alike. What is perhaps most amazing about this process is that most of this work is done by hand with fairly basic implements, and often the most advanced tool used will be a basic blowtorch. While some countries now require environmentally sensitive techniques to be used in ship breaking, it remains to be seen whether certain pressures will be brought to bear on places that have traditionally had fewer restrictions on how and where this activity takes place. The first link will take users to a recent 60 Minutes profile of the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh. Viewers can view the entire segment and also read a complete transcript on the site. Moving on, the second link leads to a recent news pieces from the Basel Action Network which reports on the attempts of a non-governmental organization to stop by the dismantling of a massive Norwegian cruise line ship in India. The third link takes users to a rather revealing photo essay on ship breaking by Brendan Corr. The fourth link whisks users away to the 1997 Baltimore Sun articles on the ship breaking industry by Gary Cohn and Will Englund, both of whom were awarded the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. The fifth link will take users to a site on ship breaking offered by Greenpeace. Finally, the last link leads to a site offered by the U.S Maritime Administration which talks about the ways in which they dispose of obsolescent seagoing vessels.