Beijing's air pollution
北京的空气污染
Blackest day
最黑暗的日子
Jan 14th 2013, 4:49 by T.P. | BEIJING
ON January 12th of last year, in an article in the print edition of The Economist, we reported that the public outcry over Beijing's atrocious air quality was putting pressure on officials to release more data about more kinds of pollutants. We also noted that Chinese authorities had already embarked on a wide range of strategies to improve air quality, and that they probably deserve more credit than either foreign or domestic critics tend to give them. But we concluded with the sad reality that such work takes decades, and that "Beijing residents will need to wait before seeing improvements."
去年1月12日，我们在《经济学人》印刷版的一篇文章里报道了北京民众对该市残酷的空气质量表达了强烈抗议，使得政府开始公布更多类别的污染物数据一事。我们还指出，中国政府已经广泛实施了改善空气质量的策略，尽管遭到国内外的批评，当局的作为理应得到更多肯定。然而我们的结论伴随着悲哀的事实：这些工作耗时数十年，北京居民需漫漫苦等才能迎来空气改善的那天。
On January 12th of this year, Beijing residents got an acrid taste of what that wait might be like, as they suffered a day of astonishingly bad air. Pollution readings went, quite literally, off the charts. Saturday evening saw a reading of 755 on the Air Quality Index (AQI). That index is based on the recently revised standards of the American Environmental Protection Agency (the EPA), which nominally maxes out at 500. For more perspective, consider that any reading above 100 is deemed "unhealthy for sensitive groups" and that anything above 400 is rated "hazardous" for all.
今年的1月12日，北京居民在当日全天污浊的空气中品尝到了如同等待空气改善般的辛酸滋味。毫不夸张的说，污染指数一度"破表"。周六晚上空气质量指数（AQI）数值一度达到了755。美国环境保护局（EPA）近期修订的标准象征性地把该指数的上限定在500。具体一点来说，API指数大于100可认为"不适宜敏感人群"，大于400对所有人来说均为"有害"。
Like many Beijing residents, your correspondent has mobile-phone apps that keep up with the pollution readings. At an otherwise pleasant Saturday-evening meal with friends, he joined his companions in compulsively checking for updates.
就像许多北京居民一样，本文作者用手机应用程序来跟踪污染指数。在周六晚上与朋友聚餐时，他与同伴一道强迫症似的反复查看实时污染指数，破坏了聚餐应有的愉快。
Those previously unseen numbers were hard to believe, but they did seem to match up well enough with the noxious soup we could see, smell and taste outside. We are all far more familiar with the specifics of air-quality measurement than we would like to be. Apart from the AQI readings above 700, we were quite struck to see the readings for the smallest and most dangerous sort of particulate matter, called PM 2.5, which can enter deep into the respiratory system. These are named for the size, in microns, of the particles. A reading at a controversial monitoring station run by the American embassy showed a PM 2.5 level of 886 micrograms per cubic metre; Beijing's own municipal monitoring centre acknowledged readings in excess of 700 micrograms.
这些前所未见的数字高得难以置信，不过倒是和我们在室外看到、闻到和尝到的浓浓毒雾非常般配。我们都太熟悉这些空气质量测量方法的细节了，虽然并非我们所愿。在700有余的AQI读数之外，我们还为最小也是最危险、被称为"PM2.5"的微粒物质的指数感到相当震惊。这些微粒可以侵入呼吸系统深处，其名取自微粒的尺寸，单位是微米。美国大使馆运作的一个有争议的监测站数据显示PM2.5水平为每立方米886微克；北京市的检测中心只承认该数值超过700微克。
For perspective on that set of figures, consider that the guideline values set by the World Health Organisation regard any air with more than 25 micrograms of PM 2.5 per cubic metre as being of unacceptable quality.
为了解该数字的涵义，诸君可参考世界卫生组织设定的指导标准：任何PM2.5超过每立方米25毫克的空气质量都是不可接受的。
Chinese authorities have complained about the American embassy's insistence on independently monitoring―and publicly reporting―Beijing's air quality. And sometimes much is made of the vast differences between those readings and China's own official ones, which are often less dire. Indeed, a key feature of one of those mobile-phone apps is the side-by-side comparison of those competing data-sets. (It is of course a bad sign that people here need more than one app to keep up with all this.)
中国当局曾对美国大使馆执意独立检测（并公然报道）北京空气质量有所抱怨。有时人们会非常在意美国大使馆和中国官方数据（通常没那么吓人）间的巨大差别。事实上，这类手机应用的一个重要卖点就是能并排比较各家污染数据（如果北京人需要用几种手机应用来跟踪污染数据的话，显然不是什么好兆头）。
But on a day like Saturday, the discrepancy between official readings and independent ones hardly seemed to matter; you didn't need a weatherman to know which way the ill wind blew. Or failed to blow, as the case may have been. One expert quoted by Chinese media attributed this spike in pollution to a series of windless days that allowed pollutants to accumulate.
但在周六这天，官方和独立机构间数据的差距显得无关紧要了，无需天气预报员你就能知道邪风往哪刮了*，或者，就此事而言，风可能压根就没刮。中国媒体称有专家指出本次空气污染的高峰是因为连续的无风天气使污染物沉积所致。
*注：原文know which way the ill wind blew（译者暂译为：知道邪风往哪刮了）应该是指"无需天气预报员你就能知道出问题了"的意思。但尽力搜索后仍未找到确切的释义可以支持这个理解，只找到ill wind有"祸患中的意外收获"之意。译者能力有限无法确定理解无误，实在抱歉。
But wind can be a problem when it does blow, too. In the outlying provinces that are part of Beijing's airshed, there is a great deal of heavy industry. Pollution regulations are much harder to enforce there. And, in this colder-than-average winter, people have been burning more coal and wood than usual.
但如果风刮起来也是个问题。在北京气域外侧的省份有大量重型工业。污染治理法规在这些地区执行起来阻力更大。并且，在这个比以往要冷一些的冬季，人们烧的煤炭和木材也要比往年多一些。
It is likely to be many more Januarys to come before China gets the upper hand on its air-pollution problems. Indeed, as we mentioned last January 12th, after nearly sixty years of trying and a vast amount of progress, the city of Los Angeles has yet to meet America's federal air-quality standards. If there is any consolation to what Beijing had to endure this January 12th, it is that it should lend urgency to the public outcry, and help speed things in the right direction.
看来在中国控制住空气污染问题之前，我们还得熬过许多个一月。事实上，正如我们去年1月12日的文章提到的那样，在近60年的努力治理和显著进步后，洛杉矶市至今仍未达到美国的联邦空气质量标准。如果说北京在经历了今年的1月12日后能得到什么宽慰的话，那就是该市会更紧迫地倾听民众的呼声，并让事情加速朝正确的方向发展。
The other consolation is that readings like the ones showing now on Monday midday (in the mid 300s, merely "hazardous" and "severely polluted") feel fine by comparison.
另一种宽慰则是，有了对比，像现在周一中午的污染指数（350上下，仅仅是"有毒害"和"重度污染"而已）让人感觉还挺好。
北京的空气污染
Blackest day
最黑暗的日子
Jan 14th 2013, 4:49 by T.P. | BEIJING
ON January 12th of last year, in an article in the print edition of The Economist, we reported that the public outcry over Beijing's atrocious air quality was putting pressure on officials to release more data about more kinds of pollutants. We also noted that Chinese authorities had already embarked on a wide range of strategies to improve air quality, and that they probably deserve more credit than either foreign or domestic critics tend to give them. But we concluded with the sad reality that such work takes decades, and that "Beijing residents will need to wait before seeing improvements."
去年1月12日，我们在《经济学人》印刷版的一篇文章里报道了北京民众对该市残酷的空气质量表达了强烈抗议，使得政府开始公布更多类别的污染物数据一事。我们还指出，中国政府已经广泛实施了改善空气质量的策略，尽管遭到国内外的批评，当局的作为理应得到更多肯定。然而我们的结论伴随着悲哀的事实：这些工作耗时数十年，北京居民需漫漫苦等才能迎来空气改善的那天。
On January 12th of this year, Beijing residents got an acrid taste of what that wait might be like, as they suffered a day of astonishingly bad air. Pollution readings went, quite literally, off the charts. Saturday evening saw a reading of 755 on the Air Quality Index (AQI). That index is based on the recently revised standards of the American Environmental Protection Agency (the EPA), which nominally maxes out at 500. For more perspective, consider that any reading above 100 is deemed "unhealthy for sensitive groups" and that anything above 400 is rated "hazardous" for all.
今年的1月12日，北京居民在当日全天污浊的空气中品尝到了如同等待空气改善般的辛酸滋味。毫不夸张的说，污染指数一度"破表"。周六晚上空气质量指数（AQI）数值一度达到了755。美国环境保护局（EPA）近期修订的标准象征性地把该指数的上限定在500。具体一点来说，API指数大于100可认为"不适宜敏感人群"，大于400对所有人来说均为"有害"。
Like many Beijing residents, your correspondent has mobile-phone apps that keep up with the pollution readings. At an otherwise pleasant Saturday-evening meal with friends, he joined his companions in compulsively checking for updates.
就像许多北京居民一样，本文作者用手机应用程序来跟踪污染指数。在周六晚上与朋友聚餐时，他与同伴一道强迫症似的反复查看实时污染指数，破坏了聚餐应有的愉快。
Those previously unseen numbers were hard to believe, but they did seem to match up well enough with the noxious soup we could see, smell and taste outside. We are all far more familiar with the specifics of air-quality measurement than we would like to be. Apart from the AQI readings above 700, we were quite struck to see the readings for the smallest and most dangerous sort of particulate matter, called PM 2.5, which can enter deep into the respiratory system. These are named for the size, in microns, of the particles. A reading at a controversial monitoring station run by the American embassy showed a PM 2.5 level of 886 micrograms per cubic metre; Beijing's own municipal monitoring centre acknowledged readings in excess of 700 micrograms.
这些前所未见的数字高得难以置信，不过倒是和我们在室外看到、闻到和尝到的浓浓毒雾非常般配。我们都太熟悉这些空气质量测量方法的细节了，虽然并非我们所愿。在700有余的AQI读数之外，我们还为最小也是最危险、被称为"PM2.5"的微粒物质的指数感到相当震惊。这些微粒可以侵入呼吸系统深处，其名取自微粒的尺寸，单位是微米。美国大使馆运作的一个有争议的监测站数据显示PM2.5水平为每立方米886微克；北京市的检测中心只承认该数值超过700微克。
For perspective on that set of figures, consider that the guideline values set by the World Health Organisation regard any air with more than 25 micrograms of PM 2.5 per cubic metre as being of unacceptable quality.
为了解该数字的涵义，诸君可参考世界卫生组织设定的指导标准：任何PM2.5超过每立方米25毫克的空气质量都是不可接受的。
Chinese authorities have complained about the American embassy's insistence on independently monitoring―and publicly reporting―Beijing's air quality. And sometimes much is made of the vast differences between those readings and China's own official ones, which are often less dire. Indeed, a key feature of one of those mobile-phone apps is the side-by-side comparison of those competing data-sets. (It is of course a bad sign that people here need more than one app to keep up with all this.)
中国当局曾对美国大使馆执意独立检测（并公然报道）北京空气质量有所抱怨。有时人们会非常在意美国大使馆和中国官方数据（通常没那么吓人）间的巨大差别。事实上，这类手机应用的一个重要卖点就是能并排比较各家污染数据（如果北京人需要用几种手机应用来跟踪污染数据的话，显然不是什么好兆头）。
But on a day like Saturday, the discrepancy between official readings and independent ones hardly seemed to matter; you didn't need a weatherman to know which way the ill wind blew. Or failed to blow, as the case may have been. One expert quoted by Chinese media attributed this spike in pollution to a series of windless days that allowed pollutants to accumulate.
但在周六这天，官方和独立机构间数据的差距显得无关紧要了，无需天气预报员你就能知道邪风往哪刮了*，或者，就此事而言，风可能压根就没刮。中国媒体称有专家指出本次空气污染的高峰是因为连续的无风天气使污染物沉积所致。
*注：原文know which way the ill wind blew（译者暂译为：知道邪风往哪刮了）应该是指"无需天气预报员你就能知道出问题了"的意思。但尽力搜索后仍未找到确切的释义可以支持这个理解，只找到ill wind有"祸患中的意外收获"之意。译者能力有限无法确定理解无误，实在抱歉。
But wind can be a problem when it does blow, too. In the outlying provinces that are part of Beijing's airshed, there is a great deal of heavy industry. Pollution regulations are much harder to enforce there. And, in this colder-than-average winter, people have been burning more coal and wood than usual.
但如果风刮起来也是个问题。在北京气域外侧的省份有大量重型工业。污染治理法规在这些地区执行起来阻力更大。并且，在这个比以往要冷一些的冬季，人们烧的煤炭和木材也要比往年多一些。
It is likely to be many more Januarys to come before China gets the upper hand on its air-pollution problems. Indeed, as we mentioned last January 12th, after nearly sixty years of trying and a vast amount of progress, the city of Los Angeles has yet to meet America's federal air-quality standards. If there is any consolation to what Beijing had to endure this January 12th, it is that it should lend urgency to the public outcry, and help speed things in the right direction.
看来在中国控制住空气污染问题之前，我们还得熬过许多个一月。事实上，正如我们去年1月12日的文章提到的那样，在近60年的努力治理和显著进步后，洛杉矶市至今仍未达到美国的联邦空气质量标准。如果说北京在经历了今年的1月12日后能得到什么宽慰的话，那就是该市会更紧迫地倾听民众的呼声，并让事情加速朝正确的方向发展。
The other consolation is that readings like the ones showing now on Monday midday (in the mid 300s, merely "hazardous" and "severely polluted") feel fine by comparison.
另一种宽慰则是，有了对比，像现在周一中午的污染指数（350上下，仅仅是"有毒害"和"重度污染"而已）让人感觉还挺好。
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