‘清洁’技术正在毒害人类

我给我弟弟订了《纽约时报》的订阅服务。

I gave my brother a New York Times subscription.

我们会互相分享文章。

We exchange articles.

这样读完同一篇文章后，我们就能一起讨论。

And so having read the same article, we can discuss it.

她给我订了一年期的会员，这样我就能看所有比赛了。

She sent me a year long subscription so I have access to all the games.

《纽约时报》为我们创造了优质的共处时光。

The New York Times contributes to our quality time together.

它让我们的关系更加丰富。

It enriches our relationship.

这真是个既酷又贴心的礼物。

It was such a a cool and thoughtful gift.

我们正在读同样的内容。

We're reading the same stuff.

我们在做同样的食物。

We're making the same food.

我们意见一致。

We're on the same page.

了解更多关于将《纽约时报》订阅作为礼物的信息，请访问nytimes.com/gift。

Learn more about giving a New York Times subscription as a gift at nytimes.com/gift.

这里是《纽约时报》，我是瑞秋·艾布拉姆斯，您正在收听的是《每日新闻》。

From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily.

在美国关于如何应对气候变化这一充满争议的斗争中，铅回收是一个令人欣慰的故事。

In the contentious fight over how to address climate change in The United States, recycled lead is a feel good story.

它可以通过保障工人安全的技术进行处理，并重新用于为全球数百万辆汽车提供动力的电池中。

It can be processed with techniques that keep workers safe and reused in batteries that power millions of vehicles around the world.

但《纽约时报》的一项调查揭示了这项环保倡议背后巨大的人道代价。

But a New Times investigation reveals how this environmental initiative comes at a major human cost.

今天，彼得·古德曼将为我们揭示这项所谓清洁技术背后的肮脏生意。

Today, Peter Goodman explains the dirty business of a supposedly clean technology.

今天是12月2日，星期二。

It's Tuesday, December 2.

彼得，欢迎来到节目。

Peter, welcome to the show.

谢谢邀请。

Thanks for having me.

作为我们全球经济领域的顶尖专家之一，你刚刚完成了一项关于回收电池与铅中毒的惊人调查——我敢打赌大多数人对这个话题知之甚少。

You are one of our foremost experts on the global economy, and you just came out with this really eye opening investigation on recycled batteries and lead poisoning, which I will bet is not something that most people know a lot about.

所以我特别想知道两件事。

So I'm very curious to know two things.

第一，你是怎么开始调查这个领域的？

One, how did you even get on this investigation?

第二，彼得，你最初对回收电池了解多少？

And number two, how much did you, Peter, know about recycled batteries when you first started?

我完全不了解

I knew zero

零。

Zero.

关于回收电池。

About recycled batteries.

而且这这这已经是往多里说了。

And that's that's that's rounding up.

好吧。

Okay.

然后我接到了《检验》杂志一位记者的电话，这是一家相对较新的独立调查新闻机构，专门关注全球公共卫生领域。

So I got a call from a guy at the examination, which is this relatively new independent investigative newsroom that specializes in global public health.

他们有位非常出色的记者，威尔·菲茨吉本，我之前从未见过他，但听说过他的大名。

And they have this really terrific reporter, a guy I'd never met, though I'd heard about him, Will Fitzgibbon.

他已经在非洲做了不少相关工作。

He had done a fair bit of work already in Africa.

他是首席专家。

He was a lead expert.

他深入调查了铅回收行业。

He dug into the lead recycling industry.

这个行业为美国汽车引擎盖下的许多汽车电池提供原料。

And this is the industry that supplies a lot of the car batteries that we find under the hoods of cars in The US.

我们说的是新车、二手车，比如AutoZone、家得宝、沃尔玛这些地方的车。

We're talking new cars, used cars at places like AutoZone, Home Depot, Walmart.

美国用于制造汽车电池的铅很多来自国外，因为国内供应已经耗尽。

And a lot of the lead that we're using to make car batteries in The US is coming from outside of The US because we've run out of supply domestically.

因此这个行业开始在全球范围内寻找新的铅来源。

So the industry has gone out looking around the world for new sources of lead.

而尼日利亚正是他们目前重点开拓的地区之一。

And one of the places it's now looking quite aggressively is Nigeria.

威尔已经花了不少时间实地考察这个行业的真实运作情况。

Will had already spent a fair bit of time looking into what this business actually looks like on the ground.

他已经发现铅回收的处理方式在近距离观察时相当触目惊心。

He'd already figured out that the process of recycling lead was being done in a way that was really quite horrific to see up close.

对人们的危害极大。

Was really harmful to people.

他提出了一个绝妙的主意，那就是我们真的去实地检测人们。

And he'd have this terrific idea, which was that, we would actually go and test people.

我们会找到愿意自愿接受血液检测的人，量化铅进入人们血液的具体含量。

We would find people willing to volunteer for blood tests and quantify just exactly how much lead was reaching people's bloodstreams.

我们还会检测土壤，调查食物供应受污染的情况。

And we'd also test soil to look into the tainting of the food supply.

于是我被征召来尝试调查是谁在购买这些铅，贸易条款是如何制定的，以及整个物流过程。

And so I got enlisted to try to take a run at figuring out who was buying it, how the terms of trade were going down, all the logistics along the way.

他们选择我是因为我在全球范围内撰写复杂供应链故事的报道已有超过二十五年的经验。

They wanted me because I've been writing versions of complex supply chain stories now for twenty five plus years around the world.

虽然我对这个特定行业一无所知，但我对航运和物流确实有些了解。

And I didn't know anything about this particular industry, but I did have some inkling about shipping, logistics.

而且我确实很感兴趣，试图找出西非这场公共卫生灾难与美国汽车行业之间的联系。

And I was certainly intrigued to try to make the connection between this public health catastrophe in West Africa and the auto industry in The United States.

这种关联听起来极具挑战性。

That connection sounds incredibly challenging to make.

是啊。

Yeah.

确实非常具有挑战性，尤其是因为我们谈论的是一个秘密交易。

It's it's enormously challenging, especially because we're talking about a trade that's secret.

我的意思是，参与者根本不愿意和任何人谈论这些事情。

I mean, the participants have no interest in talking to anybody about this stuff.

公开可获取的数据非常有限。

There's limited publicly available data.

所以我发现自己接手了坦白说是我职业生涯中最困难的报道任务。

And so I found myself taking on what quite honestly was the most difficult reporting assignment of my career.

你实际是从哪里开始这次报道之旅的？

Where did you actually start the reporting journey?

威尔已经做了很多前期准备工作。

So Will had already done a lot of this legwork.

他已经在尼日利亚有消息来源了。

He already had sources in Nigeria.

他知道这些工厂的位置。

He understood where these factories were.

然后我和威尔一起前往当地，一方面是为了确认这些工厂附近村庄居民的真实生活状况，另一方面是要在铅原料被装入集装箱运往全球各港口之前，采访拉各斯当地了解尼日利亚供应链环节的人士。

And then I went there with Will to nail down the real life consequences for the people living in villages right next to these plants, and also to go talk to people in Lagos who could tell us about the Nigeria supply chain part of it before this lead gets put into shipping containers and sent across the water for ports around the world.

那么你们具体去了哪里？在那里看到了什么？

So where exactly did you go, and what did you see there?

我去了一个叫奥吉乔的地方，就在拉各斯北部。拉各斯是个面积广阔的超大型都市区。

So I went to a place called Ogi Joe, which is just North of Lagos, which is a sprawling, you know, enormous metropolitan area.

奥吉乔算是工业与乡村的结合体，那里有许多冶炼厂，包括我们最终重点调查的真金属冶炼厂。

And Ogi Joe is sort of a combination of an industrial and rural where there are a bunch of smelters, including the one that we wound up focusing on called True Metals.

我们选择这家工厂不仅因为其污染排放极其严重，还因为它只处理铅原料。

And we picked it not only because it's really bad in terms of the pollution that it puts out, but also because it only deals in lead.

这些都是大型工厂

And these are large factories

嗯。

Mhmm.

工人们将铅料投入巨大的熔炉，产生的烟雾弥漫整个地区，包括紧邻工厂的那些村庄。

Where people are feeding this lead into these giant furnaces that send smoke wafting throughout the area, including in these villages that are right next to the factories.

所以我花了很多时间与当地家庭相处，听他们讲述生活在这些工厂隔壁的困境。

So I spent a lot of time just sitting with families, talking to them about the struggle of living next door to these plants.

人们不停咳嗽。

People were coughing.

人们抱怨各种与文献记载的铅中毒相关的症状：消化不良、各种胃肠道不适、持续头痛。

People were complaining of all sorts of ailments that are linked in the literature to lead poisoning, indigestion and various gastrointestinal distress, unrelenting headaches.

我还看到学校里的孩子们——那些教室就紧挨着这些工厂。

And I saw children in schools that were literally next to these factories.

眼前的景象让我震惊不已，近距离目睹这一切实在令人毛骨悚然。

So I I was just blown away and really horrified by what I was seeing up close.

这让我真切感受到——这个报道至关重要。

And it gave me a real sense of this story is really important.

所以你在镇上看到的所有这些污染迹象，都来自这种铅电池回收过程。

So what you're seeing in this town is all these signs of pollution that is coming from this lead battery recycling process.

在我们深入故事之前，我想请你解释一下电池应该如何正确回收及其原因，然后说说你在尼日利亚看到的情况以及有何不同。

Before we get any further in the story, I just wanna have you explain how and why a battery gets recycled the correct way, and then what you saw in Nigeria and how that was different.

当然。

Sure.

要知道，几乎每辆在路上行驶的汽车都装有铅电池，这一点很重要。

So, you know, it's important to note that virtually every car on the road has a lead battery

嗯。

Mhmm.

就在车底某个位置，甚至电动车也不例外。

Under there somewhere, even electric vehicles.

如果没有铅电池，我们立刻就会注意到。

And if we didn't have lead batteries, we'd notice real fast.

嗯。

Mhmm.

铅恰好是地球上最可回收的元素之一，汽车行业也充分利用这一点，将自己标榜为循环经济的典范。

And it happens to be one of the most recyclable elements on earth, and the auto industry has really leaned into that in promoting itself as the exemplar of the circular economy.

他们确实回收了大部分旧电池，并拥有非常先进的工厂。嗯。

They do recycle most of these old batteries and have very sophisticated plants Mhmm.

进行回收处理。

That recycle.

他们采用自动化流程，安全地拆解旧电池并提取铅。

They have, you know, automated processes that break apart the old batteries and extract the lead safely.

他们会妥善处理电池中的酸性物质。

They dispose of the acid that's in there.

他们设有排放控制系统，防止铅尘和烟雾扩散到周边社区。

They have emissions controls that prevent lead dust and smoke from spewing out into communities.

所有这些设施耗资数百万美元。

All that stuff costs millions of dollars.

因此随着美国等地法规日益严格，我们的冶炼厂不得不搬迁。

And so as regulations have gotten stricter in places like The United States, we've had smelters move.

这导致了本地供应减少。

So that's eliminated local supply.

与此同时，由于人口增长，需求也在增加。

At the same time, demand has increased because population's growing.

有更多人开车出行。

We got more people driving around in cars.

因此电池制造商不得不去世界各地寻找更多铅原料。

And so battery manufacturers have had to go around the world to go find more lead.

而我在尼日利亚看到的景象，与你在北美铅回收工厂里见到的截然不同。

And what I saw in Nigeria was something very different than what you would see if you managed to get invited into a lead recycling plant in North America.

首先，我看到了所谓的'拆解场'里的人们。

I saw, first of all, people in so called breaking yards.

这些地方专门接收废旧电池。

These are the places where they get the spent batteries.

由被称为'拾荒者'的人通过人力车、自行车、摩托车或卡车运来，将旧电池送进这些场地。

They're brought by these people known as pickers who come in by rickshaw, bicycle, motorbike, truck, and they bring these old batteries into these yards.

然后，男人们常常赤膊上阵，没有任何防护装备，用砍刀劈开塑料外壳。

And then men, often shirtless with no protective gear whatsoever, use machetes to break apart the plastic casing.

就是用锤子猛砸。

Just hammering at them.

是的。

Yeah.

而这在美国本该是由机器在严格管控的环境下完成的。

And this is what would have been done by machines in The United States in a tightly controlled environment.

没错。

Correct.

这听起来极其危险。

This sounds incredibly dangerous.

极其危险。

Incredibly dangerous.

你都能感觉到。

You can just sense it.

你不需要什么环境科学的博士学位也能明白，不戴护目镜、不戴手套、光着膀子挥舞砍刀劈砍旧电池、让酸液四处飞溅，这绝对不是什么好主意。

Like, you you don't need some sort of PhD in environmental science to understand that it's not a good idea to have no safety goggles, to have no gloves, to not have a shirt on, to be taking a machete, slamming it into an old battery with acid spewing out in every direction.

那些小作坊会把酸液直接倾倒进河道里。

The smaller operations, they take the acid and they actually dump it into waterways.

这简直太可怕了。

It's just horrifying.

对吧？

Right?

这还只是拆解电池的环节。

So that's just the battery breaking operations.

接下来是熔炉环节。

Then there's the furnaces.

大部分污染都来自这里。

This is where most of the pollution comes from.

这些巨型熔炉设施负责将废旧电池中提取的铅熔化处理。

The furnaces are these giant facilities that take the old lead taken out of spent batteries, and they melt it down.

他们在极高的温度下将其熔化成液态，倒入模具中形成铅锭，然后这些铅锭可以被运输到电池制造商那里用于生产新电池。

They cook it at incredibly high temperatures into this molten liquid that's poured into molds that then form these ingots that can then be, you know, moved around, trucked to battery manufacturers that make new batteries.

如果你在美国看到这样的熔炉工厂，你会看到用于吸尘的设备。

And if you saw a plant, a furnace in The US, you'd see equipment used to vacuum up dust.

你会看到防止烟雾扩散到社区的机械设备。

You'd see machinery that prevents smoke from getting out into the communities.

你会看到各种自动化系统，防止工人徒手接触有毒物质而中毒。

You'd see all sorts of automated systems to prevent workers from poisoning themselves by touching things with their bare hands.

我在尼日利亚看到的完全是露天作业。

What I saw in Nigeria was just open air.

我的意思是，你能用肉眼看到烟雾从这些工厂的波纹金属板屋顶间逸出。

I mean, you could see the smoke with your bare eyes just getting out between the sheets of corrugated metal that are the roofs of these factories.

你都能闻到那股气味。

You could smell it.

我还被邀请进入人们的家中。

I was invited into people's homes.

我和一个男人交谈，他说，是的，我的墙壁都是黑的。

I talked to a man who said, yeah, my walls are black.

你能亲眼看到。

And you could see it.

烟雾实在太浓了。

Just the smoke is so intense.

这些影响如此明显且触手可及，让人无法不为之动容。

And the impacts of this are just so obvious and so palpable that it was impossible to not be moved by this.

听起来这些地方几乎是在毫无监管的情况下运作的。

So it sounds like these places are operating with very little regulation.

你是怎么追踪他们生产的铅的去向的？

How did you end up tracing what happens to the lead that they produce?

我们有贸易数据。

Well, we had trade data.

威尔在调查中建立了一个很棒的数据库，包含了所有公开可获取的信息。

You know, Will, at the examination, built a terrific database that had all the publicly available information.

通常，一家贸易公司会识别全球范围内的再生铅来源。

So typically, a trading company will identify sources of recycled lead around the world.

他们会购买

They'll buy

它。

it.

嗯。

Mhmm.

他们会将其运送到美国的某个终点站，通常是巴尔的摩港。

They'll ship it to an endpoint in The United States, typically the Port Of Baltimore.

然后故事就结束了。

And then the story ended.

所以我的工作就是弄清楚，接下来会发生什么？

So my job was to figure out, well then what happens?

那你是怎么做到的呢？

So how did you do that?

于是我很快意识到，这事没有专家可咨询。

So I quickly figured out there's no expert to call.

也没人写过这方面的博士论文。

There's nobody who did a dissertation on this.

没有相关书籍。

There's no book.

连提供建议的YouTube纪录片都找不到。

There's no YouTube documentaries to watch for tip.

甚至没有Reddit这样的平台去获取可疑的建议。

There isn't even, you know, Reddit to go get dubious, know, tips.

我当时

I I was

包罗万象。

for everything.

是啊。

Yeah.

那完全是个黑箱。

It was just a black box.

于是我开始联系为这些贸易公司工作的人。

And I started to reach out to people who worked for these trading companies.

我最关注的是这家名为托克的公司。

The one I was most focused on was this company called Trafigura.

需要说明的是，托克在这里本质上是个中间商。

And to be clear, Trafigura is basically a middleman here.

没错。

Correct.

是的。

Yeah.

托克的工作就是买卖大宗商品。

Trafigura's job is to buy and sell commodities.

他们最清楚市场上有什么货以及价格如何。

They're the ones who are most expert in what's available, what's the price.

因此，我们在数据库中可以看到交易记录，显示Trafigura正从我们关注的尼日利亚冶炼厂购买铅，并运往巴尔的摩港，但当时我完全不知道是谁在购买这些铅。

And so we had transactions we could see in the database where trafficker is buying lead from these smelters we're focusing on in Nigeria and shipping it to the Port Of Baltimore, but I had no idea who was buying it at that point.

于是我尝试了多种方法。

And so I did a bunch of different things.

我报名参加贸易展会，希望能遇到能帮我了解内情的人。

I signed up to go to trade shows, hoping I would run into people who would help tell me the story.

我在LinkedIn上花了大量时间，给所有在Trafigura工作过的人群发消息。

I spent a lot of time on LinkedIn, just mass messaging, anybody who had worked at Trafigura.

这个过程非常孤独，感觉徒劳无功。

And that was pretty lonely and felt fairly futile.

大多数人都不理我。

Most people ignored me.

有些人把我推给公关部门，然后他们也不理我。

Some sent me to the communications people who then ignored me.

最终，有少数人开始以非常关键的方式帮助我。

And then eventually, a handful of people started helping me in a really critical way.

他们开始反复提到同一个可能的买家。

And they started to name the same likely purchaser over and over again.

他们提到东宾公司，美国第二大电池制造商。

They named East Penn, which is the second largest battery manufacturer in The United States.

这是一家家族企业。

It's this family owned business.

他们没有上市。

They're not publicly traded.

他们非常低调，不喜欢与媒体打交道，当然更不想理会我。

They're very quiet, and and they don't like to deal with the press, they certainly didn't wanna deal with me.

所以此刻，我'知道'——这里要打个引号。

So at this point, I know, and I put that in quotation marks.

就像，我通过深度背景消息得知——没有具体人名和文件证明——东宾公司正从贸易公司购买通过巴尔的摩港进口的铅，但我无法证实这一点。

Like, I know on deep background, right, with no names attached and no documents that East Penn is buying lead from trading companies that are bringing it into the Port Of Baltimore, But I can't prove it.

你还不能报道这件事。

You can't report it yet.

你有很好的报道素材，但还不到可以报道的时候。

You'd you have good reporting, but it's not reportable yet.

基于这些消息来源，这肯定不会成为故事中令人满意的关键部分。

It's not it's certainly not gonna be a satisfying significant part of the story based on that sourcing.

我需要更有力的证据。

I needed something stronger.

所以我去了巴尔的摩港。

So I went to the Port Of Baltimore.

我实际上和一位非常出色的摄影师在那里待了一整天，这可能是她人生中最无聊的一天。

I actually spent a whole day there with a really excellent photographer who had probably the most unexciting day of her life.

那简直是相当徒劳的一天。

It was kind of a fairly futile day.

我们实际上租了一艘小渔船，就在巴尔的摩港口附近转悠。

We actually chartered a little fishing boat and we just like tooled around the harbor in Baltimore.

我们能看到一些货物运进来的那个码头。

And we were able to see the dock where some of these shipments come in.

看到一个卡车场，他们从水上卸货的地方。

Saw a trucking yard where they unload it from the water.

我们对地理环境有了些了解，但那天并没有船只运载铅进来。

And we got a sense of the geography, but there was no vessel bringing in lead on this particular day.

但我确实了解到一些情况。

But I did learn something.

基于那次报道，基于我在卡车场了解到的情况，我联系了这家物流公司——场站负责人非常不情愿且含糊地确认他们处理过来自西非的铅，这些铅由托克公司采购，其中部分被运往宾夕法尼亚州的东宾公司。

And because of that reporting, because of what I learned at the truck yard, I reached out to this logistics company where a guy who ran the yard did very reluctantly and somewhat elliptically confirm that they handled lead incoming from West Africa purchased by Trafigura, and they sent some of it out to Pennsylvania to East Penn.

但我们仍然非常需要和东宾公司谈谈这些事，要知道，这是美国第二大电池制造商。

But we still really needed to talk to East Penn about all this because, you know, let's remember, this is the second largest battery manufacturer in The United States.

这不是个家喻户晓的名字。

It's not a household name.

这不是我们大多数人会想到的公司，但它确实存在，而我们都是参与者。

It's not a company most of us ever think about, but it's there and we're participants.

他们生产的电池安装在数百万行驶中汽车的引擎盖下。

They're making batteries under the hoods of millions of cars that are out there on the road.

他们才是真正从中获利并依赖尼日利亚供应链的一方。

They're the ones actually profiting off of this and depending upon the supply in Nigeria.

所以我想了解他们采取了哪些尽职调查措施，以确保从尼日利亚采购的铅符合其社会与环境标准。

So I wanted to understand what sorts of due diligence they were undertaking to ensure that this lead they were buying from Nigeria was in compliance with their social and environmental standard.

我曾多次致电东宾公司，但他们一直避而不谈。

So I'd had calls out to East Penn and they were just blowing me off.

他们不接我的电话。

They weren't responding to my calls.

我的邮件也石沉大海，完全得不到回应。

I wasn't getting responses to my emails, just no response.

于是我明白，必须想办法直面东宾公司。

And it became clear to me that I was gonna have to figure out how to confront East Penn.

我们稍后回来。

We'll be right back.

嘿。

Hey.

我是《纽约时报烹饪》的Von Vreeland。

It's Von Vreeland from New York Times Cooking.

如果我能飙个海豚音，我就来个Moriah式的。

And if I could hit a whistle tone, I would do a Moriah.

是时候了，因为饼干周来了。

It's time because cookie week is here.

这是一年中最美好的时光，我们将连续七天推出由你最喜爱的烘焙师创作的新饼干食谱。

It is the best time all year when we unveil seven days of new cookie recipes from some of your favorite bakers.

这看起来像一只粉色的小贵宾犬。

This looks like a little pink poodle.

它们看起来好想抱抱。

They look huggable.

如果我把越南咖啡做成饼干会怎样？

What if I took Vietnamese coffee and made that into a cookie?

这些都是豪华版饼干。

These are deluxe cookies.

这酸糖太疯狂了。

The sour candy is crazy.

什么？

What?

这简直离谱，但好吃得要命。

It's absolutely unhinged, but completely delicious.

闻起来太香了。

It smells so good.

所有饼干周食谱尽在nytcooking.com。

Find all the cookie week recipes at nytcooking.com.

立即订阅享受限时优惠。

Subscribe now for a limited time offer.

彼得，我当了很多年记者，所以完全理解你这种充满疑问的状态。

Peter, I spent many years as a reporter, so I can absolutely relate to this idea that you have questions.

你必须直面你要报道的对象。

You have to get in front of the people you're writing about.

给他们回应的机会，如果你试图从正门进入却一无所无，结果，那你将一无所获。这听起来就像你在东宾州遇到的情况。

Give them an opportunity to respond, and you are getting nowhere trying to go in through the front door, which is what sounds like it was happening to you with East Penn.

所以我猜你不得不在如何真正给他们提供评论机会这件事上发挥创意。

So I imagine you had to get creative about how to actually give them an opportunity to comment.

我不得不把我的

I had to make a spectacle of my

故事搞得声势浩大。

story.

太棒了。

Excellent.

事情实际上就是这样发生的。

This is actually how it happened.

所以重大突破发生在圣安东尼奥，国际电池协会在那里举办了一场聚会。

So the big break was in San Antonio, where the Battery Council International has this gathering.

那是个大型高尔夫度假村，聚集了来自电池公司、铅回收行业以及制造相关设备的企业代表。

It's this big, you know, golf resort, and there are people from battery companies, and lead recycling, and, you know, companies that make equipment used.

他们都在打高尔夫、喝酒、用餐，玩得很开心。

They're all golfing and drinking and dining and having a good time.

而一旦我表明我正在调查的报道内容，他们要么对此一无所知——因为大多数人听我讲述时都会说：尼日利亚？

And the second I identify what story I'm working on, they either don't know anything about it because and most most people, when I would tell them the story, they'd say, Nigeria?

不可能。

No way.

我们不会从尼日利亚购买铅。

We're not buying lead from Nigeria.

这根本说不通，他们怎么可能有铅？

That's just not even how could they even have lead?

哇。

Wow.

好吧。

Okay.

他们甚至完全不知情。

They didn't even know.

而那些少数知情人士的反应则是：'我最不想做的事就是和《纽约时报》的人讨论这个话题。'

And then the handful of people who did know were like, the last thing I wanna do is talk about this subject with someone from the New York Times.

后来我发现，东宾公司的负责人，当时的CEO克里斯·普鲁伊特，即将获得国际电池协会颁发的杰出服务奖，我正计划去参加。嗯。

And I figured out that the head of East Penn, the then CEO of East Penn, this guy Chris Pruitt, is getting this distinguished service award from the Battery Council International, and I'm planning to go Mhmm.

因为这是我目前唯一的机会了。

Because it's gonna be my only shot at this point.

我已经给他们各个市场部门的人打过电话。

I've got calls out to their various marketing people.

但毫无进展。

I've just gotten nowhere.

所以我知道克里斯·普鲁伊特会在那里。

So I know Chris Pruitt's there.

我真的很想和他谈谈。

I really wanna talk to him.

公关人员说，'这次活动是为了表彰他。'

The communications guy says, this is supposed to be honoring him.

如果你在那里问这些令人不适的问题，那确实会很尴尬。

And if you're there asking these uncomfortable questions, that'll really be awkward.

现在，作为记者的我在想，好吧，我其实不在乎。

Now, the reporter in me is like, well, I don't really care.

我是为读者工作的。

I work for the reader.

我必须去问这些问题。

I have to go ask these questions.

但我想，如果反正我也得不到任何结果，只会让自己出丑，那这样做毫无意义。

But I thought, well, if I'm not gonna get anywhere anyway, and I'm just gonna make a spectacle of myself, there's no upside to that.

你不会伏击他吧。

You won't ambush him.

我不会伏击他。

I won't ambush him.

但通过这次接触，我能为后续更有成效的交流打下基础，或许还能去宾夕法尼亚拜访他。

But out of that, I'll get some basis for a more productive engagement and maybe go visit him in Pennsylvania.

我终于收到了东宾州外部公关公司的回复，并开始与他们接触。

I do finally hear from an outside PR firm for East Penn, and I start to engage with them.

最终，我说服了克里斯·普鲁伊特和东宾州的其他高管与我们交谈。

Eventually, I was able to persuade Chris Pruitt and other executives at East Penn to talk to us.

他实际上对你说了什么？

And what did he actually say to you?

他说我们的报道促使他对铅的来源进行了比以往更多的思考。

Well, he said that our reporting had caused him to do a lot more thinking than he'd previously done about the origins of the lead.

而且之前他曾与托克等贸易公司谈过，表示需要特定纯度的铅。

And that previously, he he had talked to trading companies like Trafigura and had said, you know, I need this particular purity.

顺便说一句，当然你们要保证这不会造成社会或环境问题。

And oh, by the way, of course, you're guaranteeing that this is not causing social or environmental problems.

哦，不会的。

Oh, no.

当然不会。

Of course not.

贸易公司会说，我们有审计流程。

The trading company would say, you know, we have audit processes.

你看，这一切都没问题。

You know, all this is good.

那好吧。

Okay then.

只要你能按保证的价格交付我们所需的数量和纯度，就没问题。

Just as long as you can deliver the quantity and the purity that we need at the guaranteed price, all good.

自从我们的报道后，他实际上深入调查了自己的供应链，开始担忧贸易公司进行的尽职调查流程。

And since our reporting, he'd actually dug into his own supply chain, had become concerned about the process of due diligence the trading companies were doing.

用他的话说，出于最大程度的谨慎，决定不再从尼日利亚购买铅。

And as he put it, know, out of the utmost of caution, decided that he didn't want to buy any more lead from Nigeria.

所以我曾问过他关于道德责任的问题。

So I did ask him at one point about moral culpability.

我说，既然我们现在知道托克集团公司的尽职调查存在很多不足，而且我们亲眼目睹了这些冶炼厂附近村庄发生的情况。

And I said, well, you know, given that we now know that Trafigura's due diligence leaves a lot to be desired, and we could see with our own eyes and what was playing out in these villages next to these smelters.

在这件事的道德责任方面，你认为自己处于什么位置？

Where do you fit in in in terms of the moral culpability for this?

然后他说，听着

And he said he said, look.

你知道，我是不是太轻信了？

You know, was I too trusting?

这个责任我认

I'll take that shot.

你对此怎么看？

What did you make of that?

我认为这概括了复杂供应链的现实情况

I thought that summed up the reality of complicated supply chains.

整个体系里存在太多看似合理的推诿空间，每个参与者都能振振有词地说：哦，我以为有别人在把关

There's so much sort of plausible deniability built in that any given participant can say plausibly, oh, I thought somebody else was looking out.

不过说到这点，East Penn公司确实承认了当地发生的状况是不可接受的

Well, to that point though, this is East Penn acknowledging that what's happening on the ground is not okay.

对吧？

Right?

就像，这不符合他们作为一家美国公司的标准。

Like, it's not up to their standards as an American company.

没错。

Right.

但Trafigura呢？

But what about Trafigura?

他们有没有做出任何改变或调整行为的承诺？

Like, have they made any kind of pledge to change or modify their behavior?

Trafigura给了我们这样一份笼统的声明。

So Trafigura gave us this kind of general statement.

嗯哼。

Mhmm.

但他们表示有一套审计流程来确保遵守官方的社会与环境标准。

But they say that they have an audit process that ensures that they're complying with their official social and environmental standards.

我们实际上采访了一位为托克在拉各斯进行审计的顾问，他反驳了这只是表面功夫的说法。

And we actually talked to a consultant who does the audits for Trafigura in Lagos, who pushed back on the idea that it's just like performative, superficial.

他说，我实地考察时是非常认真的。

He said, I really go when I look.

我的第一个问题是：好吧，你会去电池拆解场吗？

First question I had is, okay, do you go to the battery breaking yards?

嗯。

Mhmm.

没有。

No.

没有。

No.

我只是去冶炼厂。

I just go to the smelter.

好的。

Okay.

所以从一开始，你对于进来的原材料、在这些地方工作的人所受的影响，或者酸液流向哪里都一无所知。

So right right off the bat, you don't know anything about the raw materials that are coming in or the impacts for the people who are working in those places or where the acid's going.

它是流入溪流了吗？

Is it going in a stream?

这些你都不知道。

You know, none of that.

对吧？

Right?

所以即使在冶炼厂，我问，那你具体做些什么呢？

So then even at the smelter, I said, well, what do you what do you do?

他说，我会非常仔细地检查。

He said, well, I I look very, you know, carefully.

但顾问表示，我会给他们一份我发现的真实问题清单。

But the consultant said, I give them a real list of problems that I identify.

但实际情况是——这点我也向曾在托克工作的人证实过——审计员会说：'好吧，如果你们能定期发放安全护目镜会很好'。

But the way this goes, and I and I confirmed this with people who've worked at Trafigura, is the auditor will say, okay, you know, it really would be good if you handed out safety goggles on a regular basis.

如果你们能建立一个控制系统来管理铅尘，那确实会很好。

It really would be good if you put in a system to control the lead dust.

如果你们能安装电池破碎设备，那就太棒了。

It would be great if you put in battery breaking equipment.

冶炼厂会说，好的。

And the smelter will say, okay.

非常感谢您的建议。

Thank you very much for your suggestion.

我们一定会发放安全护目镜。

We will certainly hand out safety goggles.

然后Trophagoras说，太好了。

And then Trophagoras says, great.

你的审计完成了。

Your audit's done.

现在我们来谈谈下一笔交易的量吧。

Now let's talk about the volume of the next deal.

我是说，这不是一个可能导致交易脱轨的流程。

I mean, this is not a process that can end up in derailing a deal.

这个流程的初衷是为了达成交易继续进行的结论，而这正是问题所在。

This is a process that is informed by a desire to reach a conclusion at which the deal carries on, and that's the problem.

所以这里存在尽职调查。

So there is due diligence.

有检查环节。

There are inspections.

有相关建议。

There are recommendations.

有相关建议。

There are recommendations.

有行动计划，但没有强制措施

There's an action plan, but there's no compulsion

没错。

Right.

要么做正确的事，要么生意就做不成。

To do the right thing or the business doesn't happen.

与此同时，大洋彼岸的买家——本案中的东宾公司的克里斯·普鲁伊特——对这些一无所知，也肯定不会专程飞往尼日利亚去核实贩运者是否真的在进行严格的审计流程。

And meanwhile, the person who's buying it on the other side of the ocean, in this case, Chris Pruitt in East Penn, doesn't know any of that and is certainly not getting on a plane to go to Nigeria to make sure trafficker is really engaging in a rigorous audit process.

那么现在听起来，你似乎已经从那通关于这次合作的初始电话中，找到了你负责调查部分的答案。

So at this point, it sounds like you know the answer to the part of the investigation that you were responsible for from that initial phone call you got about this partnership.

没错。

Right.

另一个问题呢？

What about the other question?

关于尼日利亚这些城镇的居民因铅中毒遭受何种医疗伤害的问题呢？

The question about what kind of medical harm was being caused to the people in these towns in Nigeria by this lead poisoning?

因此，这次审查做了大量的基础工作。

So this is where the examination did an extraordinary amount of legwork.

所以威尔委托了尼日利亚这支独立科学家团队，他们找到了70名志愿者。

So Will had commissioned this team of independent scientists in Nigeria who found 70 volunteers.

我们说的是14名儿童和16名在这些铅冶炼厂工作的人。

And we're talking about 14 children, 16 people who worked at these lead smelters.

这些人就住在这些冶炼厂附近。

And these were people who live very close to these smelters.

想象一个村庄，在村子的正中央，教堂就紧挨着这些工厂的围墙。

You know, imagine a village, and in the very center of the village, you know, churches right up against the walls of these factories.

学校也紧邻这些工厂的围墙。

Schools right up against the walls of these factories.

生活就在这样的环境中展开。

So life is playing out all around.

我们检测了70名志愿者，就在周边地区，其中大约七成的人血液中的铅含量被多家医疗机构认定为危险水平。

And we tested 70 people, volunteers, right in the vicinity, and roughly seven out of ten of them had levels of lead in their blood deemed dangerous by various medical authorities.

哇。

Wow.

所以我们重点关注的对比案例是十多年前南加州一家电池制造商发生的最严重铅污染事件，当时被宣布为联邦紧急状态。

So one of the things that we were focused on was this comparison with the worst lead disaster at a battery manufacturer in Southern California more than a decade ago, which was a federal emergency.