Le Clemençeau

The Le Clemençeau was a 50-year-old French warship decommissioned in 1997. In January 2006 the ship set sail from France to be broken up at the Alang works in India, Asia's largest maritime graveyard. Alang is a port north of Bombay where workers, often with few tools and no protective clothing, are paid less than $5 a day to rip apart old ships. However, Greenpeace and three other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) vigorously opposed the move, and they took the issue to the Indian Supreme Court. It agreed with Greenpeace that the ship contained more than 500 tons of asbestos and other toxins and banned the transfer.

Breaking yards are concentrated in four countries: India, Bangladesh, China, and Pakistan. The court ruling was not universally welcomed in India. Shambhu Nakrani, a local Greenpeace activist, believes that his group was mistaken: times are hard in the area, and the people were counting on the Clemençeau work. Alang used to account for 90 percent of the world industry, but now only 15 of 173 yards are operational, and 5,000 of the peak 40,000 workers are employed. The yard managers claim that there are special areas, workers, and disposal techniques for dealing with asbestos, and protective gear is available. They pointedly express regret that contracts have gone to other countries where the environmental regulations are looser.