CNN:全球2100个城市超过污染标准，加剧气候变化 [美国媒体]

2,100 cities exceed recommended pollution levels, fueling climate change

CNN:全球2100个城市超过污染标准，加剧气候变化

(CNN)Climate change is already affecting the health of populations around the world, but things are set to get worse if adequate changes aren't made, according to an international consortium of climate experts.

CNN：气候变化已经影响到了全球人口的健康，根据一个国际气候专家组织的观点，如果不做出改变，事态将会变得更加糟糕。

Fueling the impact is the fact that more than 2,100 cities globally exceed recommended levels of atmospheric particulate matter -- particles emitted when fuels, such as coal or diesel, are burned and are small enough to get into the lungs -- says a report published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet.

加剧气候变化冲击的是这样一个事实：全球有超过2100个城市超过了大气颗粒物质的标准水平——当诸如煤炭和柴油等燃料燃烧时，便会排放出颗粒物质，这些颗粒物质足够小，从而能够进入肺部——医学期刊《柳叶刀》在周一发表的一篇文章中如此说道。

In the UK alone, 44 cities exceeded levels recommended by the World Health Organization.
Since 1990, exposure to fine particulate matter -- smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter -- increased by 11.2%, the report states, aided by a slow transition away from fossil fuels.

单单在英国就有44个城市超过了世界卫生组织的划定标准。自1990年以来，暴露在细小颗粒物质——直径小于2.5微米——中的机会增加了11.2％，这份报告认为，这受到了化石燃料使用方式缓慢过渡的影响。

Climate change "is the major health threat of the 21st century," said Hugh Montgomery, co-chairman of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change and director of the Institute for Human Health and Performance at University College London in the UK. "There's an urgent need to address it."

《柳叶刀》健康与气候变化倒计时委员会的联席主席、英国伦敦大学学院健康与行为研究所的主任于格·蒙哥马利指出：气候变化“是21世纪对健康的主要威胁。应对这一问题已经成为当务之急"。

The latest report highlights multiple health, weather and economic consequences that need immediate attention.

这份最新的报告强调了多方面的健康、气候和经济后果应当立即引起注意。

Poor air quality

糟糕的空气质量

"Air pollution is one of the leading causes of premature mortality globally," said Paul Wilkinson, professor of environmental epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who co-authored the report.

这份报告的共同撰写者、伦敦卫生及热带医学学院的环境流行病学教授Paul Wikinson说道："空气污染是在全世界引发过早死亡的主要原因之一"。

More than 803,000 deaths across 21 Asian countries in 2015 were attributable to pollution from coal power, transport and the use of fossil fuels at home, the report states.

这份报告指出：2015年，在亚洲的21个国家中，有超过80万3000人的死亡要归因于本国火电厂、运输和在家中使用化石燃料所造成的污染。

But there are "some glimmers of hope," he said, such as the fact that coal power peaked in 2013 and is now showing evidence of a decline.

但是Paul Wikinson说道：仍然存在着"一丝希望"，比如火电厂的数量在2013年达到峰值，现在已经表现出减少的趋势。

Investment in coal also declined from 2013, Wilkinson said, but this "will take a couple of generations to realize."

他说道：从2013年开始，火电厂的投资已经趋于减少，但是这"需要花费一代人的时间才能实现"。

Wilkinson urges governments to prioritize moving away from fossil fuels, as their harms to the environment and human health have long been known. But 71% of 2,971 cities in the WHO's air pollution database exceed the organization's annual exposure guideline for particulate matter.

他敦促各国政府优先考虑减少使用化石燃料，因为正如长期以来我们所知道的，它们对环境和人类健康造成了损害。但是在世界健康组织的空气污染数据库中，2971个城市中的71％超过了该组织每年所公布的颗粒物污染标准。



Increased disease

与日俱增的疾病

"Cases of dengue fever have doubled every decade since 1990," Montgomery said. More people are getting it due to climate change, he said, and "it's going to go up."

蒙哥马利说道："自1990年以来，每过十年，登革热的发病数量都会倍增"。他指出，很多人将这一点归咎于气候变化，"它的发病数量正在上升"。

Dengue is a virus spread by mosquitoes and can result in fever, headaches and pain. Severe cases can bring a multitude of symptoms including bleeding, shock, organ failure -- and potentially death. There is no treatment or vaccine.

登革热是一种通过蚊虫传播的病毒，能够导致发热、头痛和各种疼痛。严重的情况下能够导致包括出血、休克、器官衰竭等综合症——甚至可能导致死亡。现在仍然没有治疗措施或疫苗。

Changes in global temperatures, specifically higher temperatures, have increased the range of countries where the mosquitoes carrying the virus can thrive.

全球温度的变化，特别是温度的升高，已经增加了携带这种病毒的蚊虫能够大量繁殖的国家的数量。

The WHO estimates that 390 million dengue infections occur globally each year. Deaths from dengue have increased worldwide, particularly in the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Caribbean regions, the report states.

报告指出：世界卫生组织估计全球每年发生3亿9000万的登革热传染案例。在全球范围内，由登革热所导致的死亡数量已经在增加，特别是在亚太地区、拉丁美洲和加勒比海地区。



Heat waves: Increased risk of death, decreased labor

热浪导致死亡风险增加和劳动力减少

Between 2000 and 2016, temperatures rose by 0.9 degrees Celsius where people are living, said Peter Cox, professor of climate system dynamics at the University of Exeter, who also co-authored the report.

这份报告的另一个合作撰写者、埃克塞特大学的气候系统动力学教授彼得考克斯指出：在2000年至2016年期间，人类居住地区的气温升高了0.9摄氏度。

"The land is warming much quicker than the ocean," he said, highlighting the increased number of heat waves people experience today and the extreme vulnerability of older people. With populations now living longer, the numbers of those vulnerable to heat stresses will only go up.

他说道："陆地的升温速度要快于海洋"，并强调了今天人们所经历的热浪和老年人遭遇气候极端考验的数量已经在增加。

During that same time frame, the number of older people exposed to heat waves increased by roughly 125 million, and the the ability of people to work -- namely to do physical or manual work outdoors -- fell by 5.3%, Cox said, resulting in economic losses for countries.

考克斯说道：在同一时期，暴露在热浪之下的老年人的数量增加了1亿2500万，人们的工作能力——也就是在户外进行体力或手工劳动——跌落了5.3％，这也造成了多个国家的经济损失。


The need to adapt and become resilient

改变和适应的需要

Addressing climate change will result in benefits and improvements to public health, but governments are too slow to address the problem, the authors agreed.

这些报告撰写者们认同：积极应对气候变化将会有利于和改善公共健康，但是政府应对这一问题的速度太过于缓慢。

Although an increasing number of countries started to develop plans and strategies to reduce the impact of climate change, the majority are high-income nations, the report shows.

这份报告表明：虽然越来越多的国家开始制定计划和战略来减少气候变化的冲击，但是其中大部分仍然是高收入国家。

"Less than a third of countries have done anything so far," said Georgina Mace, head of the Center for Biodiversity and Environment Research at UCL, who was also involved in the report. "In low-income countries in particular, there is low expenditure on adaptation."

同样参与这份报告撰写的伦敦大学学院生物多样性与环境研究中心的主任Georgina Mace说道："迄今为止，只有不到三分之一的国家为此做出过努力。特别是在低收入国家，致力于做出改变的开支很少"。

Countries can prepare for changes in infrastructure such as transport, electricity and health care supplies, which can be affected by extreme weather events.

各国能够为在诸如运输、电力和医疗保障等基础设施方面出现的变化进行准备，这些都是极端天气状况所能够影响的领域。

In addition, policies to reduce use of fossil fuels and entice people toward electric vehicles and renewable energy sources can be prioritized. The report shows that while sales of electric cars have risen to 77 million per year, this is easily lost next to the figure of 1.2 billion: the total number of regular gas- and diesel-fueled cars being driven.

另外，减少使用化石燃料和促使人们更多地使用电动汽车和可再生能源的政策也应该被放在首位。这份报告表明：尽管电动汽车的销量已经达到了每年7700万辆，但是相比于现在路上正在行驶的常规燃气、燃油汽车的数量仍然相形见绌，后者达到了12亿辆。



Not enough is being done, Mace said.

Mace说道：我们所做的努力还不够。

"Adaptation is going to become more important in the future," she said. "The impact is going to get a lot worse."

她说道："在未来，适应气候变化的努力正变得越来越重要。气候变化的冲击正变得越来越严重"。

"The indicators reflect the breadth of the transformation that is required to address these public health issues by not only considering the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on health but also considering adaptation and mitigation issues, as well as economic and finance issues as the world moves from a fossil-fuel driven to a low-carbon economy," said Clare Goodess, senior researcher at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, who was not involved in the report.

未参与这份报告撰写的、东安格利亚大学的气候变化研究所的资深研究者Clare Goodess说道："反映了这种变化范围之广的各项参数都表明我们需要积极应对这些公共健康的问题，这不仅需要我们考虑气候变化对健康的直接和间接的影响，还需要考虑适应气候变化和减少气候影响的手段，以及从一个化石燃料驱动的世界转型为一个低碳经济会出现的经济和金融问题。

Goodess said more work is needed to improve the attribution of these observations to climate change, a point on which the authors of the report agree.

Goodess指出，还需要作出更多的努力来更好地找出气候变化的原因，这一点得到了报告撰写者们的赞同。

"Many of the most dramatic trends in health impacts are related to rising temperature and more frequent high-temperature extremes," Goodess said. "The attribution of these temperature trends to human activities is now unequivocal so the urgency of addressing the issues raised by this report is not in doubt."

Goodess认为："在健康领域许多最为剧烈的冲击趋势都与上升的温度和更加频繁出现的高温极端天气有关系。人类活动造成了这些温度变化是确定无疑的，所以这份报告指出的应对这些问题的当务之急毫无疑问是正确的"。