【中文标题】污染？什么污染？
【原文标题】Pollution? What Pollution?
【登载媒体】纽约时报
【原文作者】DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW
【原文链接】http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/world/asia/09iht-letter.html?_r=1&ref=china
每天，《新京报》的天气预报那一版都会给出很多有帮助的小建议，读者应当早锻炼吗？适合爬山吗？该不该洗车？但是，就像这个全世界污染最严重的城市中的其它报刊一样，它没有告诉读者真正重要的事情：空气清洁度如何。
本周，气温高达40摄氏度（104华氏度）。它主张：“穿短袖”，旁边佐以一张高尔夫T恤衫的图片。
还有，“未来两天没有降雨，适合清洗车辆”。（雨后的汽车通常会布满一道道的尘土，就像海边波浪状的沙地，这是雨水穿过肮脏的天空，蒸发之后的效果。）
日出和日落的时间没有被提及，但是明确提到了天安门广场的国旗升降时间。知道了国旗什么时间被戴白手套的解放军士兵抛向天空，很简单就知道了什么时候破晓；知道了国旗什么时间被虔诚地收起，也就知道了什么时候夜幕降临。星期天，国旗收起的时间是19:47，第二天国旗展开的时间是4:51。
没有一个字提到污染。
译者注：《新京报》天气预报截图。
根据世界卫生组织的报告，世界上污染最严重的20个城市中有16个在中国，污染是每年数千名富裕的中国人移居西方的主要原因，尽管这个国家的财富不断膨胀。外国人还是不愿意到中国来，即使来到这里也会严格控制停留时间。那些长期待在这里的人都或多或少地为健康担忧，他们会尽量安排孩子遵循医生的建议，每年至少出国四个星期，让肺部得到清理。
当然，人们可以随时进入环保局的网站，里面有全国空气污染指数。该数据的准确性广受质疑。中国绿色和平组织指出，WHO有两套空气质量标准——一个是为发达国家制定的，另一个不甚严格的标准供发展中国家使用，而“中国的标准比两者都低”。
让我们来看看BeijingAir，这是美国驻北京大使馆定时更新的推特信息，其中的数据来自使馆独立的监测机构。星期天，BeijingAir显示“不健康的”PM2.5（可以通过肺进入血管的细微颗粒物质，被认为极端危险）和“非常不健康的”臭氧，这个指标观测的是污染物与阳光产生的光化反应。
与此相比，中国政府发布的当天天气指数是“良好”。官方的指标并不包括PM2.5和臭氧，而是精明地使用PM10（大型的颗粒状物质，通常可以在咳嗽时被排出体外），二氧化氮和二氧化硫。
北京的每一个人都看得到，也闻得到污染，但是很多人似乎不愿直面问题。信息不足也许是一部分原因，再加上无助感——反对那些你无力改变的事情有什么意义呢？污染是政府不惜一切代价发展经济政策的副产品。很显然，人们在几年前才开始说“烟”，更早的时候人们都是说“雾”。人们总是把糟糕的空气质量怪罪给天气，似乎污染是不可避免的，真正的罪魁祸首是风，因为它没能把这些污染物吹走。
在最近一次从上海到北京的中国国际航空公司的飞行中，澳大利亚飞行员在广播中说，飞机着陆前窗外看不到什么东西，“因为有浓重的烟雾”。听到这样直率的描述的确令人震惊。和自己的朋友或者出租者司机私下聊天这样说无所谓，但是这可是载着200名衣着光鲜的中国人的波音767飞机啊。北京烟雾弥漫？飞行员会遇到麻烦吗？
我紧张地听了听中文翻译，当然，乘务员的措辞是“北京有雾”。我们在视线糟糕的条件下着陆了。在乘出租车回家的路上，我闻到了空气中化学物的味道。
当然，政府了解目前存在的问题，并且已经实施了大量的措施，包括不断提高的机动车排放标准。6月底，政府宣布了一项计划，在中国三个最大的工业区引入污染管理体系制度，包括华北的北京、中部的武汉和华南的广州。这项计划直到2015年才能发挥作用，其目标是对付酸雨、雾霾和烟尘等问题。
环保局副部长张丽君在接受官方报纸《中国日报》采访时说：“这个问题在中国近几年变得越来越突出，已经严重威胁到人们的健康。”中国将开始监控臭氧和细微颗粒的指标，这是一些社会活动人士长期以来所呼吁的。
美国使馆已经在BeijingAir做这项工作了，但不是每个人都可以看到这条消息，因为推特在中国是被封锁的。对很多中国人来说，花100美元使用VPN——一个海外服务器来绕过政府的封锁，算是一笔大钱了。
指标并不迎合漂亮的成绩。我的一个美国朋友，三个女孩的母亲说，这是她最喜欢的一个程序，她把它上传到自己的iPhone中。我欣赏她的态度，但是自己很难效仿她的热忱。
另一个朋友的态度更有代表性：“我已经不看了，没有意义，每天都是一样。”
的确如此。细微颗粒指数一般会超过100（不健康）或200（非常不健康）。指标数字范围是0到500。50以下为“好”，300以上是“危险”。
当出现“非常不健康”或者“危险”的时候，城市里一片白茫茫，空气中充满酸和烟尘的味道，树木和建筑物在远方变得影影绰绰。指数偶尔会达到500，表示细微颗粒数量已经超出了可监控的范围，这才真是可怕的。
有时候指数是“好”，当然更多情况下是“适中”，这就表示非常好了。我们面露喜色仰望天空，看起来好蓝啊。
我刚刚上网查了指数，PM2.5指数为123，这表示“对敏感人群不健康”。实际情况要比这更糟糕一些。
原文：
BEIJING — Every day, the weather page of the popular New Beijing News gives lots of helpful advice, should readers wish to exercise early in the morning, climb a mountain or wash their car. But like other major newspapers in one of the most polluted cities in the world, it doesn’t tell them something really important: how clean is the air?
This week, temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). “Wear short sleeves,” it urged, next to a helpful drawing of a golf shirt.
And, “No rain for the next two days, appropriate for washing your car.” (After rain, cars are often covered with lines of dust, like sand ripples at the beach, where water has dried after dropping through dirty skies.)
The times of sunrise and sunset aren’t specifically mentioned, but it does say when the national flag will be raised and lowered at Tiananmen Square, because to know when the flag is flung skywards by a white-gloved People’s Liberation Army soldier is, quite simply, to know when it is dawn. To know when it’s reverently rolled up is to know when it is dusk. On Sunday, flag furling was at 19:47. The next morning it was unfurled at 4:51.
Just no word about pollution.
Sixteen of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in China, according to the World Health Organization, and pollution is a key reason thousands of wealthy Chinese emigrate to the West every year, despite the country’s ballooning riches. Expatriates can be reluctant to come and, once here, may limit their stay. Those here long-term worry, quietly or loudly, and try to get their children out for a minimum of four consecutive, lung-clearing weeks a year, on doctor’s advice.
Of course, one can always check the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s Web site, which shows the national Air Pollution Index. Doubts about its accuracy are widespread. Greenpeace China notes that the W.H.O. has two air quality guidelines — one for the developed world and a less rigorous one for the developing world — and “China’s standards are lower than both.”
So we turn to BeijingAir, the hourly Twitter feed run by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, with data from independent monitors on the embassy grounds. On Sunday, BeijingAir read “Unhealthy” for PM2.5 (fine particulate matter that can enter the bloodstream via the lungs, considered particularly dangerous) and “Very Unhealthy” for ozone, which measures photochemical reactions between pollutants and sunshine.
By contrast, the Chinese government’s reading for that day was “Good.” The official index does not measure PM2.5 or ozone, instead calculating PM10 (larger particles that can often be expelled by coughing), nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide.
Everyone in Beijing can see and smell the pollution and, yet, many seem reluctant to face the problem squarely. Lack of information may be part of the reason, plus a sense of helplessness: what’s the point of railing against something you cannot change? Pollution is a byproduct of the government’s growth-at-all-costs economic policies. Tellingly, only in the last couple of years have people begun to use the word “smog.” Mostly, they say “fog.” When the air is bad it’s often blamed on the weather, as if pollution were inevitable and the real culprit is the wind, for not blowing it away.
On a recent Air China flight from Shanghai to Beijing, the Australian pilot announced there wouldn’t be much to see out the window on landing “because of heavy smog.” It felt shocking to hear the problem described in such blunt terms. A private chat with a friend or taxi driver is one thing, but this was a Boeing 767 carrying more than 200 well-heeled Chinese. Beijing, smoggy? Would the pilot get into trouble?
I strained to hear the Chinese translation. Sure enough, “There is fog in Beijing,” the flight attendant translated. We landed in very poor visibility, and on the taxi ride home, I smelled chemicals in the air.
Of course, the government knows it has a problem and has introduced a slew of measures, including progressive emission standards on motor vehicles. In late June, it announced a plan to integrate pollution management systems in China’s three biggest industrial regions, around Beijing in the north, Wuhan in the middle and Guangzhou in the south. The plan, which won’t take effect until 2015, is aimed at combating regional problems like acid rain, haze and smog.
These “have become increasingly distinct in China in recent years and pose a severe threat to people’s health,” Zhang Lijun, vice minister of environmental protection, said in an interview with China Daily, an official newspaper. It will also begin measuring ozone and fine particles, something campaigners have long called for.
BeijingAir at the U.S. Embassy is already doing that, but not everyone can read the feed, because Twitter is blocked in China. To many Chinese, the $100 or so a year for a VPN, an overseas server that can bypass government censorship, is a lot of money.
The figures don’t make for pretty reading. An American friend, mother of three small girls, says it is one of her favorite apps and has uploaded it to her iPhone. I admire her attitude but find it hard to share her enthusiasm.
More typical is the attitude of another friend: “I’ve stopped checking. There’s no point, it’s always the same.”
And it is. Regularly, fine particle readings exceed 100 (“Unhealthy”) or 200 (“Very Unhealthy.”) The scale runs from 0 to 500. Up to 50 is “Good,” over 300 is “Hazardous.”
When it’s “Very Unhealthy” or “Hazardous” you just know. The city whites out, the air smells acid and smoky, trees and buildings begin to fade in the distance. Occasionally it registers 500, which means it’s off the scale, and that’s truly scary.
Sometimes, it says “Good” or, more often, “Moderate.” Here, that means — Great! We beam at the sky, which seems very blue to us.
I just checked. The PM2.5 reading is 123, which means “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.” Could be worse.
Alan Cowell on a muted anniversary of the London terrorist attacks.
|
狗仔卡
发表于 2010-7-9 12:52
提升卡
变色卡
抢沙发
千斤顶
显身卡
发表于 2010-7-9 13:44
