Hi Stuart,
Well,you see you found a fellow soulmate on this matter.
Like you said most of the people dont care(because they realy know),so the "dont know,dont care principal"is very active among them.Goverments say"we gife those people a job"which i find a very cheap explaination.
In the very,very past,these people were most of the time fisherman before.Now they are slaves,of that one guy which buy's the old vessels.That guy dont even care about them,because if something happen to one of the workers,another is already waithing,to pick up that free place.
For the family of that worker everything changes,no more work,is no more money,so also no longer support of any kind.
From that steel and iron,they make concrete-bars for constructions all over the world,well the last decade has been a construction-explosion all over.So the guy who owned the ship on the beach,i think he becomes very rich,and let the people work for almost nothing,they can never save some money,because the payment is so low.All these stuff,should be more known among us.We care about the enviroment,and about the ocean and what lives in it.Global warming is a high issue now.However,that scrapping can continue,without respecting anyone or anything.
Marc