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Take a virtual field trip with Google Earth! Google Earth is a free, online application that uses satellite imagery to allow the user to zoom across the globe in a realistic, virtual environment. Downloading Google Earth is free at http://www.earth.google.com. An overview manual is available by clicking here... Google Earth Overview (342.0K)
To continue: - Make sure you have the Google Earth software installed and running. - Copy the following latitude and longitude and paste into the "Fly to" field under the Search tab. - Hit "Enter" for Google Earth to take you to the specified coordinates, then come back here and read the following overview.
Latitude/Longitude: 21.4032, 72.1924
A shallow, gently sloping bottom and unusually high tides allow the ships to be driven up onto the beach and then winched into position, where an army of laborers swarms over them like ants dismembering a dead beetle. Metal is dragged away and sold for recycling. Organic waste is often simply burned on the beach, where ashes and oily residue wash back into the water. Typically, it takes only about two months to completely dismantle and recycle a large tanker. Accidents among the workers are common. Almost no one has protective clothing—often not even shoes. Gangs of men cutting apart huge pieces of steel and hauling them ashore by hand frequently are injured. And even when they go home at night, workers and their families are only a few meters away from the toxic mess on the beach. Notice the shantytowns adjacent to the breaking yards.
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