The Whitman Bassow Award 2002

Best reporting in any medium on international environmental issues

AWARD YEAR: 2002

AWARD NAME: The Whitman Bassow Award 2002

RECIPIENT: Karl Schoenberger

AFFILIATION: The San Jose Mercury News

HONORED WORK: “Where Computers Go to Die”

The series is in the best tradition of investigative reporting. The articles, part of a regular feature called “Silicon Valley’s Dark Side,” break new ground by exposing a story not reported before. The research took Schoenberger to Guiyu in southern China, where he and photographer Joanne Hoyoung Lee were able to see firsthand where computers are born and where they go to die, and the far-reaching and largely unseen environmental consequences of this “e-waste.”

Citation for Excellence:
Fen Montaigne and Peter Essick
National Geographic
“Water Pressure”