數字產品噩夢 流向全球的電子垃圾

The center of the virtual world, economically and culturally, may still be the United States, but the work of creating that world leaves a real and growing footprint overseas. American technology giants have established data centers in about two dozen countries, and electronics manufacturers draw on materials fraught with ethical and environmental concerns. Those include the so-called conflict minerals — tin, tantalum and tungsten (and also gold) — as well as rare earth metals that are available almost exclusively from China. At the same time, the rapid cycle of obsolescence and replacement that feeds the expansion also produces a lot of garbage — nearly 42 million metric tons of toxic e-waste in 2014, less than a sixth of which made it into the regulated recycling stream, with much of the rest being broken down by workers at dumps throughout the developing world. Following are a few scenes from the digital life cycle.

虛擬世界的中心在經濟上和文化上或許仍然是美國，但創造虛擬世界的工作越來越多地轉向海外。美國科技巨頭們已經在大約24個國家建立了數據中心，電子產品製造商們使用材料的過程催生了對於倫理道德和環境的關切。這包括了所謂的“爭端礦物”——錫、鉭、鎢（和黃金）——以及爲中國壟斷的稀土金屬。與此同時，過時與替代的快速循環維持了產業的擴張，也製造了大量垃圾——2014年，全球產生了將近4200萬噸有毒的電子垃圾，其中不到六分之一進入了受監管的回收渠道，而剩餘的大部分則被髮展中國家的工人在垃圾場分解。以下是數字產品生命週期中的幾幕場景：

Guiyu, China: The largest informal e-waste disposal site in China is here. Workers earn about $1.50 per day extracting materials that can be resold from circuit boards, sometimes by burning or leaching away potentially toxic components.

中國貴嶼：中國最大的電子垃圾處理場就在這裏。工人從電路板中提取可以被轉售的材料，有時是通過燃燒或濾除潛在的有毒元件，每天可以賺1.5美元。

Accra, Ghana: Agbogbloshie, a suburb of Accra, is one of the most polluted e-waste dumps in the world. Recently, automated wire-stripping units were installed here to help workers extract copper wire without burning the plastic coating.

加納阿克拉：位於阿克拉郊區的阿博布羅西(Agbogbloshie)是世界上受污染最嚴重的電子垃圾場之一。近期，這裏安裝了自動化的剝線設備，以幫助工人不必焚燒塑料外皮即可取出銅線。

Chhatarpur, India: In the 2000s, China cornered the market on the rare earth minerals that are crucial components of consumer electronic and telecommunications equipment. But India produces around 2.5 percent of the world’s supply, largely here in the Orissa Sands Complex.

印度切德爾布爾：在本世紀頭一個10年裏，中國壟斷了對於消費電子與電信設備元件十分重要的稀土市場。但是印度生產的部分佔全世界總供給的2.5%，大部分源自這裏——Orissa Sands Complex。

Lulea, Sweden: Facebook opened a data center here in 2013, its first outside the United States, and says it will open another nearby soon. Locating the centers in high latitudes helps reduce the cost of cooling the servers.

瑞典呂勒奧：Facebook於2013年在這裏設立了其第一個位於美國之外的數據中心，並聲稱很快將會在附近設立另一個。將中心設立在高緯度地區有助於降低冷卻服務器的成本。

Democratic Republic of Congo: Armed groups here battle over profits from gold, as well as tin, tantalum and tungsten (also known as the “three Ts”) — the so-called conflict minerals that are necessary to produce the specialized components of many electronic devices.

剛果民主共和國：這裏的武裝組織爲了爭奪黃金，以及錫、鉭和鎢（即“3T”）的利潤而戰鬥。這些所謂的“爭端礦物”是生產很多專業的電子產品元件所必須的。

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China: Amazon Web Services is building a data center here, and other American companies are opening facilities in China, where the government has invested heavily in the development of its “cloud cities.”

中國寧夏回族自治區：亞馬遜雲服務(Amazon Web Service)在此建立了一個數據中心。其他美國公司也正在中國設立各類設施。中國政府正加大投資，發展“雲城市”。