北京拟建通风廊道"吹"雾霾
When Beijing experiences bouts of pollution that blacken the skies and burn the lungs, residents often joke that the Chinese capital needs to build giant fans to clear out the toxic air. Mountains to the north and west help trap smog in the city, and a stiff breeze from Mongolia is the surest way to ensure somewhat cleaner air.
北京所经历的一轮轮污染，让天空变得灰暗，使人们感到肺部灼烧。居民们经常开玩笑说，北京需要树一些巨型风扇，来把这种有毒空气吹走。位于北部和西部的山峦把雾霾困在城里，而来自蒙古的强风则是让空气变洁净的最有力保障。
Beijing officials are now considering ways to help that process. Though giant fans are not on the menu, at least not yet, city planners are looking at ways to create corridors that encourage wind flow through the capital. The plan is inspired by research on urban heat islands, which shows that large buildings that block the wind are one of the causes of higher average temperatures in cities as opposed to those in the countryside.
北京的官员目前正在考虑，怎样才能推动这一过程。虽然没打算建巨型风扇——至少目前没有——城市规划部门正在想办法开辟一些能让风吹过北京的廊道。该计划受到了关于城市热岛效应的研究的启发。研究表明，挡住空气流通的大型建筑物是导致城市地区平均温度比乡村更高的原因之一。Some critics of the plan say that Beijing, a city of 21 million people, is already so developed — with some suburbs expanding 30 miles or more from the city center — that adding restrictions on future construction will have little effect. They say the persistent air pollution problem will be solved only by controlling emissions from cars, factories, power plants and other sources.
对计划持批评态度的一些人表示，北京这座城市拥有2100万人口，开发程度已经相当之高——部分郊区距离市中心有50公里，乃至更远——所以对未来的建设项目加以限制，不会产生多少效果。他们认为，只有控制来自汽车、工厂、发电厂和其他来源的排放，才能解决挥之不去的空气污染问题。
“This isn’t controlling pollution. It’s diverting it,” Wang Bing, a Beijing-based author, wrote on Sina Weibo.
“这不是治理而是转移雾霾！”长居北京的作家余耕（原名王兵）在新浪微博上写道。But the plan has received some interest from residents who have grown weary of repeated periods of heavy pollution that is several times in excess of domestic and international air quality standards. Because of rigorous short-term pollution controls, including taking huge numbers of cars off the road each day, Beijing enjoyed relatively clear skies when it hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting this month. But dangerously poor air quality returned soon after the summit-related restrictions were dropped.
但是，这一计划却在居民中间引发了一些兴趣。北京反复出现超过国内和国际大气质量标准数倍的严重污染，让市民忍无可忍。本月，在举办亚太经济合作组织(Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation)峰会期间，由于采取严格的短期污染控制措施，包括每天对大量汽车限行，北京享受到了相对澄澈的天空。但是，在与峰会相关的限制措施取消后，具有毒害性的糟糕空气质量又立刻重现。The Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design is now investigating how limits on building height and location along six corridors may improve air flow in four areas, The Beijing News reported on Friday. Those areas are the central north-south axis through the Drum and Bell Towers, the central business district on the city’s east side, the Shilihe District in the southeast and a west-east corridor running through Qianmen.
据《新京报》上周五报道，北京市城市规划设计研究院正在研究，限制六条廊道沿线的建筑物高度和地点，从而有望给四个区域的空气流通带来改善。涉及的区域分别是北辰路-鼓楼大街一带、CBD东扩区、位于东南部的十里河区域，以及东西走向的前三门护城河。Peng Yingdeng, an air pollution expert at the Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, told the newspaper that the plan would not involve any large-scale demolition or construction, but it was more likely to entail an adjustment of current regulations to limit building heights and densities in specified areas. Similar proposals are under consideration in other major Chinese cities including Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shenyang and Wuhan.
北京市环境保护科学研究院的空气污染专家彭应登告诉《新京报》，在实施该计划的过程中，不会大拆大建，而是对目前的规定进行调整，以限制特定区域的建筑高度和密度。杭州、南京、沈阳和武汉等其他一些中国大城市也在考虑类似提议。“This kind of work to search for ways to reduce pollution is really worth applauding,” the state-run news agency Xinhua said in a commentary. “If scientists confirm it is effective, then we should promote it on a much larger scale.”
“这样的人工治霾探索值得鼓励，”官方媒体新华社在一篇评论文章中表示。“如果经科学评估确实见效，则应在更大范围推广。”Some experts have expressed doubts that the plan would make a significant difference. Episodes of serious pollution are usually associated with periods of little or no wind, and air corridors do little good if the wind isn’t blowing, Song Guojun, an environmental science professor at Renmin University, told The Beijing News. Solving the air pollution problem ultimately requires controlling pollution sources, he said.
有些专家对这个计划将带来多大改变心存疑问。中国人民大学环境学院教授宋国君在接受《新京报》采访时说，北京每次遇到重污染通常都与基本无风的静稳状况有关，如果没有风，风道也起不到什么作用。他表示，解决空气污染问题，最终还是要靠治理污染源。“For most parts of the downtown area, counting on air corridors in the suburbs to reduce pollution levels may not be realistic,” Zhang Zengjie, a researcher from the Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, told the state-run newspaper China Daily earlier this year.
今年早些时候，北京市环境保护科学研究院的研究员张增杰告诉官媒《中国日报》，“对于市中心大部分地区而言，依靠市郊的风道来降低污染水平，或许不太现实。”
