2024考研英语同源外刊12月:中国空气治理任重道远
Over the past decade, China’s once-pollution-choked skies have steadily improved, according to more than two decades of atmospheric measurements taken by NASA satellites. But researchers say that there is still a long way to go to clean China’s air and protect the health of its citizens.
根据美国国家航空航天局卫星20多年来的大气测量，在过去十年里，中国一度被污染的天空稳步改善。但研究人员表示，要净化中国的空气和保护公民的健康，还有很长的路要走。
The speed at which China has reduced its air pollution has been “impressive”, says Chi Li, an atmospheric scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, owing to technological solutions and ambitious policies.
密苏里州圣路易斯华盛顿大学的大气科学家池莉说，由于技术解决方案和雄心勃勃的政策，中国减少空气污染的速度“令人印象深刻”。
Each year, air pollution is responsible for more than four million premature deaths globally — including an estimated one million in China — primarily from heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory illnesses. Fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less — referred to as PM2.5 — is the most concerning air pollutant, says Li.
每年，空气污染导致全球400多万人过早死亡，其中包括中国约100万人，主要死于心脏病、肺癌和呼吸道疾病。Li说，直径为2.5微米或更小的细颗粒物（称为PM2.5）是最令人担忧的空气污染物。
The university’s Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group, which Li is part of, monitors various pollutants and estimates their global health impacts. The data for China show that from the late 1990s, average annual PM2.5 exposure in the country rose from 35 to more than 50 micrograms per cubic metre, before levelling out around 2006 at between 50 and 601. Since 2013, PM2.5 levels have steadily declined, and in 2021, the average annual exposure was 33.3 micrograms per cubic metre (see ‘Fresh air’). That’s below the nation’s air-quality standard of 35, but still much higher than the recommended level of 5 set by the World Health Organization (WHO), based in Geneva, Switzerland.
李是该大学大气成分分析小组的一员，该小组监测各种污染物，并估计其对全球健康的影响。中国的数据显示，从20世纪90年代末开始，中国PM2.5的年均暴露量从每立方米35微克上升到50微克以上，然后在2006年左右稳定在50至601微克之间。自2013年以来，PM2.5水平稳步下降，2021年的年均暴露量为33.3微克/立方米（见“新鲜空气”）。这低于国家35的空气质量标准，但仍远高于总部位于瑞士日内瓦的世界卫生组织（WHO）建议的5级标准。
The decline in PM2.5 is the result of targeted efforts by China over the past two decades to address poor air quality. Upgrades to coal-fired power plants have had the biggest effect so far, says Qiang Zhang, an atmospheric scientist at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
PM2.5的下降是中国过去二十年中有针对性地努力解决空气质量差问题的结果。北京清华大学的大气科学家张强表示，到目前为止，燃煤发电厂的升级产生了最大的影响。
Since 2004, the Chinese government has provided subsidies to retrofit smokestacks in coal-fired power plants with filters and other equipment to remove sulfur dioxide — a molecule that reacts with other compounds in the atmosphere to form PM2.5 particles — from emissions.
自2004年以来，中国政府一直提供补贴，为燃煤发电厂的烟囱改造过滤器和其他设备，以去除排放物中的二氧化硫——一种与大气中的其他化合物反应形成PM2.5颗粒的分子。
In 2013, China released its air-pollution prevention and control action plan, which further tightened standards for industrial emissions, and shut down small, inefficient power generators and industrial operators.
2013年，中国发布了大气污染防治行动计划，进一步收紧了工业排放标准，并关闭了小型低效发电机和工业运营商。
An analysis by Zhang and his colleagues shows that these measures accounted for 81% of the reductions to PM2.5 emissions between 2013 and 2017.
张和他的同事的一项分析显示，这些措施占2013年至2017年间PM2.5排放量减少的81%。
Further reductions could lead to fewer heavy-pollution days — driven by industrial emissions and cold weather that prevents dispersal — when the daily PM2.5 concentration can exceed 200 micrograms per cubic metre. Last year, China’s government set a target to eliminate heavy-pollution days by 2025.
当PM2.5日浓度超过200微克/立方米时，进一步减少可能会减少重污染天数，这是由工业排放和阻止扩散的寒冷天气驱动的。去年，中国政府制定了到2025年消除重污染天数的目标。
But there’s still a long way to go. In 2021, the WHO lowered its recommended annual-exposure limit for PM2.5 from 10 to 5 micrograms per cubic metre, a level that most countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and Canada, exceed.
但还有很长的路要走。2021年，世界卫生组织将其建议的PM2.5年暴露限值从每立方米10微克降至5微克，这一水平是包括英国、德国、美国和加拿大在内的大多数国家超过的。
Zhang says that the air-quality improvements from end-of-pipe technologies, such as smokestack filters, that target industrial emissions will eventually be exhausted. “Energy and the climate policies would definitely play more important roles in the future,” he says. These include efforts to supply more households with natural gas or electric heating systems in parts of rural China that still rely on coal and wood-fired stoves to heat their homes.
张说，以工业排放为目标的末端管道技术（如烟囱过滤器）对空气质量的改善最终将被耗尽。“能源和气候政策在未来肯定会发挥更重要的作用，”他说。其中包括努力为中国农村部分地区的更多家庭提供天然气或电力供暖系统，这些家庭仍依赖燃煤和燃木炉灶为家中供暖。
Electrical grids in rural areas are being upgraded to accommodate the increased capacity required for domestic heating, says Zhang, and the renewable-energy sector is expanding. But “it’s still a long way to go” before coal-fired power is replaced, he says.
张说，农村地区的电网正在升级，以适应家庭供暖所需的增加容量，可再生能源行业正在扩张。但他表示，要取代燃煤发电，“还有很长的路要走”。
China’s goal to become carbon neutral by 2060 will help to achieve that transition, and will keep its air pollution trending downwards, says Li. “It will ultimately be more and more clean in the future if the electricity source gets cleaner as well,” he says.
李说，中国到2060年实现碳中和的的目标将有助于实现这一转变，并将使其空气污染呈下降趋势。“如果电力来源也变得更加清洁，未来最终将变得越来越清洁。”
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