评论
打印
Air pollution causes millions of premature deaths around the world every year, according to an estimate by the World Health Organization. And one of the most significant drivers of air pollution in cities is the exhaust that comes out of tailpipes from cars, trucks and buses.
据世界卫生组织估计，空气污染每年导致全球数百万人过早死亡。而城市空气污染最主要的动因之一就是来自汽车、卡车和公共汽车排气管中的废气。
In an effort to tame its air pollution, the city of Hong Kong has deployed a system that can sense when a highly polluting vehicle drives by. There are more than 150 sites for the monitoring of vehicle emissions in Hong Kong, so that high-emitting vehicles can be identified quickly and enforced for repair.
为了抑制空气污染，香港市部署了一种系统，用来感知经过的高污染车辆。香港设立了150多个车辆排放监测点，以便迅速识别排污严重的车辆，并责令修缮。
John Zhou is an environmental engineer at the University of Technology Sydney. And he's co-author on a new analysis of the program, in the journal Science Advances. He says the system works like this.
约翰·周是悉尼科技大学的环境工程师。作为《科学进步》杂志上一篇关于该项目新分析的合著者，他解释了这一系统运作的原理。
Sensors at road level shoot beams of light across the road, to a reflector. The sensors then measure how much light is absorbed by pollutants, and roughly calculate emissions from passing vehicles. At the same time the systems are reading license plates, and sends notices to big polluters.
路面上的传感器会将光束发送到道路对面的一个反射器，这些传感器可以通过测量废气对光线的吸收程度来大致计算出过往车辆的排放量。该系统同时可以读取车牌号，并向大型污染车辆发出警告。
Enforcement began in 2014. In the following four years, the program pulled 16,000 vehicles off the road--mostly taxis, but also private cars and buses. Government subsidies helped fix up 96 percent of those vehicles, and ensured they passed smog tests.
这项污染监测举措正式开始于2014年。在接下来的四年里，该项目让16000辆汽车暂停上路，其中大部分是出租车，但也有私家车和公交车。政府补贴帮助修复了其中96%的车辆，并确保它们通过了废气测试。
You know, hopefully, from the publication of this research, we can raise awareness about the effectiveness of getting the heavy-polluting vehicles off the road. The repairs cut pollutants like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides from the city's air.
通过发表这项研究，我们希望可以让更多人意识到让重污染车辆远离道路（对于环境保护来说）是多么行之有效。对重污染车辆进行维修可以减少城市空气中的一氧化碳和氮氧化物等污染物。
And that spared people from breathing them in. But the repairs had another effect too. By reducing the pollution from the tailpipe, we're also simultaneously increasing the performance of fuel combustion in vehicles, indirectly contributing to the reduction of fuel, and therefore, the reduction of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
同时，这么做也能避免人们吸入污染物。但维修这些重污染车辆还有另一个好处。通过减少尾气污染，我们同时也提高了汽车燃料的燃烧性能，间接减少了燃料的使用，从而减少了二氧化碳等温室气体的排放。
By cleaning up its air, Zhou says Hong Kong has cut carbon emissions too. That's a win-win for people in the city--and beyond.
周表示，通过净化空气，香港也减少了碳排放，这不管对于香港市民来说还是对于更大范围内的公民来说都是双赢的局面。
