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全球污染最重十城印度占七席，中国污染下降12%
林立丰 BUMBLEBEE英语课堂 今天
据美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)5日报道，最新的一项全球空气质量报告显示，全球30个空气最差城市中，22个来自印度;相比之下，中国之前雾霾笼罩的城市空气质量有了明显改善。而且，中国整体的空气污染并没有排在世界倒数前10名的榜单上。
当地时间2019年1月3日，印度阿格拉Haathi Ghat，城市被雾霾笼罩，空气质量极差。视觉中国资料图
这份名为《2018年世界空气质量》的报告由绿色和平组织和独立在线空气质量指数(AQI)监测机构Air Visual4日发布。该报告将全球各主要地区和城市在PM2.5方面的年度均值进行了排名，结果发现，世界前30个空气污染最为严重的城市有22个来自印度。全球空气污染最严重的10个城市中，有7个都在印度。
报道称，印度首都新德里郊区的古鲁格拉姆市是整个2018年世界空气污染最严重的城市，而印度也成为平均空气质量最差的国家之一，空气质量指数为135.8，几乎是美国环保局认定的“健康水平”的三倍。无独有偶，根据世卫组织2017年的统计，在全球PM2.5浓度最高的城市中，印度占了10个。
印度空气质量是南亚空气污染问题突出的缩影。根据《2018年世界空气质量》报告，世界空气污染最严重的城市前20名中，有18个城市都来自南亚的印度、巴基斯坦或孟加拉国。CNN称，虽然南亚的空气污染问题尤为突出，但该现象已成为全球性问题。在此次报告中测量的全球3000个城市中，64%的城市空气质量指数都超过世界卫生组织的规定值。绿色和平组织东南亚执行董事萨诺表示，“空气污染扼杀我们的生计和未来。PM2.5对人类的健康及经济都产生巨大的影响，除了危害人命外，估计将有2250亿美元的劳动力损失以及数亿美元的医疗费用产生”。
CNN5日称，中国是这份报告的亮点。《2018年世界空气质量》指出，与这一地区相比，中国的整体空气质量没有进入空气质量最差国家的前10名(排名第12位)。这个曾经是世界城市空气污染重灾区的国家在2017年至2018年间平均污染物浓度下降了12%。
就中国具体的城市来说，澳大利亚广播公司5日称，中国首都北京也走出世界空气污染最严重的100个城市之列。中国空气质量最好的城市是林芝。中国空气污染最严重的前两座城市都来自新疆，一个是和田(前30个最差城市中排名第8)，一个则是喀什(前30个最差城市中排名第19)。报告认为，燃煤仍然是造成东亚空气质量不佳的主要原因。此外，在总共调查的73个国家中，冰岛空气质量最好。
相关英语新闻来源有：
1 China Daily
Indias pollution fuels call for action
2 CNN
22 of the top 30 most polluted cities in the world are in India
Measures to stem （阻止；遏制） urban *** og hampered by lack of public awareness about severity of situation.
Alarmed by recent reports about urban air quality, Indian environmentalists arecalling for urgent and concrete action to tame the pollution before it spirals out of control.
Twenty-two of the worlds 30 most polluted cities are in India, according to latest figures from non-governmental environmental group Greenpeace.
The situation is alarming, with Delhi alone "almost choked", said environmental specialist Chander Veer Singh, who also served as a senior scientist with the northern regions Haryana State Pollution Control Board.
"An entire belt, spreading from northern India to the Gangetic plains （恒河平原）, is in the grip of serious air pollution since it is landlocked （内陆的）, which makes it hard for pollutants to disperse," added Polash Mukerjee, a senior research associate with the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi.
Economic boom in many Indian cities at the turn of the century has meant increased manufacturing and consumption, with the number of vehicles and construction sites also mushrooming （大量涌现）, altogether contributing to greater air pollution, according to the specialists.
The authorities have rolled out measures to help plug the problem, with major moves including bans on the burning of straw stubble （秸秆）, driving restrictions based on license plate numbers and liquefied petroleum gas fuelsubstitutes for firewood, coal and other conventional cooking methods.
But many say the lack of public awareness about the severity of the situation is proving to be a major obstacle.
"The majority of the citizens still dont think pollution is a serious issue. The result is that it has failed to become a poll issue to draw the proper attention of the state and central governments," Mukerjee said.
Air pollution has been blamed for heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease （慢性阻塞性肺疾患）, lung cancer, respiratory infections andasthma （哮喘）. The harm from *** oke inhaled by women using environmentally damaging cooking fuel in an hour alone is similar to that from 400 cigarettes, according to the World Health Organization.
"What is required right now is the strict implementation of rules," Singh said.
"If we want India to breathe clean air, its high time that our plans such as the national clean air program and graded response action plan become much more stringent, aggressive, legally binding and most of all, implementable at the ground rather than being just used as a political statement," Greenpeace activist Pujarini Sen said.
Indian authorities can also learn from Chinas efforts at tackling air pollution, according to the environmentalists.
Beijing, once among the most polluted cities in the world, is now ranked 122nd, according to Greenpeace figures.
"Beijing is showing us that it can be done, as have many other cities in Europe and the US over the past decades," Sen said.
"We have enough research and studies suggesting the way ahead toward a breathable India," Sen said.
"The question which remains to be answered is, is there enough political will to aggressively fight the health emergency India faces today and move away from the polluting fuels and practices of the past?"
The author is a freelancer with China Daily.
(China Daily 03/08/2019 page3)
【注释】
1 tame：
驯化，驯服（野生动物或鸟）
制服；控制；驾驭； If you tame someone or something that is dangerous, uncontrolled, or likely to cause trouble, you bring them under control；
2 in the grip of：受制于；受·····的深刻影响；
If a person, group, or place is in the grip of something, they are being severely affected by it；
3 stringent： （法律、规则、条件）严格的，严厉的，受严格约束的；
Stringent laws, rules, or conditions are very severe or are strictly controlled；
Hong Kong (CNN) India accounts for seven of the worlds 10 cities with the worst air pollution, according to a new report, but previously *** ogbound （烟雾笼罩的）Chinese cities have seen a marked improvement.
Gurugram, a suburb of the Indian capital New Delhi, is the worlds most polluted city, according to Greenpeace and AirVisual, which found it had an average air quality index of 135.8 in 2018 -- almost three times the level which the US Environmental Protection Agency regards as healthy.
In two months of last year, the AQI in Gurugram -- as measured by levels of fine particulate matter （细悬浮微粒） known as PM 2.5 -- was above 200. The EPA regards this as "very unhealthy" and warns that "everyone may experience more serious health effects" if exposed.
According to the report, air pollution will cause around 7 million premature deaths globally next year and have a major economic impact.
"Air pollution steals our livelihoods and our futures," said Yeb Sano, executive director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia. "In addition to human lives lost, theres an estimated global cost of 225 billion dollars in lost labor, and trillions in medical costs. This has enormous impacts, on our health and on our wallets."
The problem is particularly pronounced in South Asia. Eighteen of the worlds top 20 most polluted cities are in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, including the major population centers of Lahore （拉合尔，巴基斯坦）, Delhi and Dhaka, which placed 10th, 11th and 17th respectively last year.
Climate change "is making the effects of air pollution worse by changing atmospheric conditions and amplifying forest fires," the report said, while noting that the key driver of global warming, burning fossil fuels, is also a major cause of dirty air.
"What is clear is that the common culprit across the globe is the burning of fossil fuels -- coal, oil and gas -- worsened by the cutting down of our forests," Sano said.
"What we need to see is our leaders thinking seriously about our health and the climate by looking at a fair transition out of fossil fuels while telling us clearly the level of our air quality, so that steps can be taken to tackle this health and climate crisis."
While South Asian countries, along with China, are the worst affected, air pollution is a global issue.
Air pollution across the world in 2018
Asian and the Middle Eastern countries dominated the top 10 list of most air polluted countries, according to the report. Every city in the Middle East that was included in the study exceeded the World Health Organization’s annual exposureguideline for fine particulate matter. The map below shows pollution by country using the US Air Quality Index.
Of the 3,000 cities measured in the report, 64% exceeded the World Health Organizations annual exposure guidelines for PM2.5.
PM2.5 includes pollutants such as sulfate （硫酸盐）, nitrates （硝酸盐） and black carbon, which can sneak deep into the lungs and cardiovascular （心血管的）system. Exposure to such particles has been linked to lung and heart disorders, and can impair cognitive and immune functions.
Every single city included in the report in the Middle East and Africa exceeded WHO guidelines for PM2.5, as did 99% of cities in South Asia, 95% in Southeast Asia, and 89% in East Asia.
"As many areas lack up-to-date public air quality information and are for this reason not represented in this report, the total number of cities exceeding theWHO PM2.5 threshold is expected to be far higher," the report warned.
One bright spot was China, once the worlds poster child for urban air pollution. The report found that average concentrations of pollutants fell in Chinese cities by 12% from 2017 to 2018, while the capital Beijing has fallen out of the top 100 most polluted cities following concerted efforts to get air pollution under control.
Chinas most polluted city in 2018, according to the Greenpeace/AirVisual report, was Hotan in the far west. Baoding, which once ranked among the worst in the country, is now at number 33. When CNN visited in 2015, residents said they often couldnt see neighboring buildings because the air was so *** oggy.
While China saw improvement, however, many neighboring countries suffered major increases in pollution, including in Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand.
In January, authorities in Bangkok deployed planes with special rainmaking capabilities -- a technique known as cloud seeding （云催化；人工降雨） -- to relieve persistent pollution in the Thai capital. In the same month, cities across South Korea, China and India reported major spikes in air pollution, as winter fuel burning contributed to the *** og blanketing the region.
【注释】
1 culprit：
犯罪；犯错的人；
引起问题（或不利情势）的事物；When you are talking about a problem or bad situation, you can refer to its cause as the culprit；
2 poster child：poster boy； 代表人物；典型；
If someone is a poster child for a particular cause, characteristic, or activity, they are seen as a very good or typical example of it；
