神马文学网中国煤炭依赖成瘾
来源：百度文库 编辑：神马文学网 时间：2024/06/05 07:51:06
煤炭埋葬了死亡，成为一部压缩的历史。地质学家估计中国北部的无烟煤和烟煤煤层形成于侏罗纪时期之前。他们是由蕨物，树木，苔藓，以及其他数百万年前的生命遗骸形成的。尽管早从地球表面消失了，他们仍然具有形态和能量。如果用一双迷信的眼睛去看待煤炭，燃烧时出现的黑烟似乎就是对挖掘前世生活的一种诅咒。带一点点诗意来描述，全球变暖是因为我们燃烧了太多的过去而导致我们的星球发烧了。
China recently overtook the United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, largely because it is so dependent on this fossil fuel. For each unit of energy, coal produces 80 percent more carbon dioxide than natural gas and 20 percent more than oil. This does not even include methane released from mines, for which China accounts for almost half the global total, or spontaneous combustion of coal seams, which release 100 megatons of energy from coal each year. China's economy is utterly dependent on coal. It provides 69.5 percent of the country's energy, a greater degree of reliance than that of any other major country. Cheap coal generates electricity for Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing, fires the steel mills of Huaxi, powers the production lines of Guangdong, and allows consumers in the West to buy Chinese goods at knockdown prices. No other fuel has such an impact on the environment, both local and global.
最近，中国取代美国成为世界上最大的温室气体排放国，很大程度上是因为它的发展太依赖石油。 生成每单位的能量，煤炭产生比天然气多80%比油多20%的二氧化碳，这还不包括煤矿中释放的甲烷，中国的甲烷排放量约占世界总数的一半，或者煤层自燃所产生的100兆吨能量。中国的经济完全依赖于煤炭，程度甚于其他任何大国——中国69.5%的能量来源于煤炭。廉价的煤炭为北京，上海，重庆提供电力，为华西的钢铁厂提供火力，为广东的生产线提供能量，并使得西方消费者能以及其低廉的价格购买中国商品。没有其他燃料能对本地或全球的环境造成此般影响。
Air pollution is appalling in almost every city in China. The toll on human health is enormous. Barely 1 percent of the urban population breathes air considered healthy by the World Health Organization, and it is worst in northern China. The result is premature death, lung cancer, bronchitis, and other respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Another high-risk group is poor peasants who slowly poison themselves by heating their homes with dirty coal. But the full risks are obscured. The toxic buildup of lead, mercury, and other heavy metals in the soil and water near coal plants and smelting factories is not usually measured. Entire communities are being poisoned without realizing it.
几乎每个中国城市的空气污染都达到令人震惊的程度，对人体健康造成的损害是巨大的。根据世界卫生组织统计，几乎只有1%的城市人口能呼吸上新鲜空气，而这种情况在中国北方最为严重。由此来带的后果就是过早死亡，肺癌，支气管炎和其他呼吸系统和心血管疾病。另外一个高危群体是贫苦的农民，他们用肮脏的煤取暖，慢性地毒害着自己。但整体风险尚不明朗。火电厂和冶炼工厂附近的土和水中所溶解了来自于铅，汞及其他重金属的毒性物质，这些毒性物质通常很难测量。整个社会都受毒害而不自知。
Yet coal mines are as much a part of China's civilization as paddy fields. Mining and industry have been crucial in ensuring the longevity of the Middle Kingdom. Despite its reputation as an agricultural civilization, for most of the last 2,000 years China has been by far the world's biggest producer of coal and iron, a status lost only temporarily in the early 19th century when Britain began industrializing. It is no coincidence that the country's recent return to great power status has come at a time when it is once again No. 1 in these basic industries and when large numbers of peasants are working below rather than on the surface.
然而，煤矿就像是供养中国文明成长的稻田。矿业和工业是确保中王国（the Middle Kingdom)的长久生存的关键。尽管它是以农业文明享誉世界的，但在过去2个世纪中大多数时候，中国已经成为世界上最大的煤、铁生产国，这个状态仅仅是在19世纪初期英国开始工业化时有所回落。难怪中国最近重掌大国地位的时间刚巧是它在这些基础产业上重站首位以及大批农民在地下工作而不是在地上工作的时候。
The more I have looked into the deeply entrenched industry in China, the blacker it seems. Over the years, I have talked to black-faced miners at the mouths of illegal pits, descended deep down the shafts of huge state-run collieries, consulted labor activists, and interviewed mine owners and policymakers. The picture that emerges is of a deadly, filthy industry that is trying to clean up but is repeatedly mired by market pressures, weak oversight, and the demands of an economy that is desperate for more fuel. Collieries destroy arable land and grazing pastures, erode topsoil, worsen air and water pollution, increase levels of river sediment (raising the risk of floods), and accelerate deforestation (especially if the coal was used to make charcoal). The country's most pressing environmental problems -- acid rain, smog, lung disease, water contamination, loss of aquifers, and the filthy layer of black dust that has settled on many villages -- can all be traced back in varying degrees to this single cause.
我越是深入这个在中国根深蒂固的产业，这个产业似乎就显得越黑暗。多年来，我曾在非法矿井口和黑色面孔的矿工们交谈，下到国有煤矿深处，咨询劳工权益活动家，采访矿主和决策者。 浮现的图片是一个虽然拼命想清洗但迫于市场压力，监督薄弱以及整个经济对更多燃料的渴求而始终无法摆脱的致命的，肮脏的行业景象。煤矿破坏耕地和牧场，侵蚀土地，使得空气和水污染更加恶化，增加了河流泥沙（进而提高洪水风险），加速森林砍伐（尤其是当煤炭用来制造木炭的时候）。这个国家最紧迫的环境问题 - 酸雨，烟雾，肺疾病，水体污染，含水层的损失，黑尘所构成的污秽层已经出现在许多村庄了 - 在不同程度上都可以追溯到这个一个原因上。
Nowhere is this more evident than in northern Shanxi province, a coal-mining stronghold where I went to see how the black subterranean dust fouled the skies above the most polluted city on Earth: Linfen, which has held that unenviable title for most of the previous decade. Shrouded in a spectral haze, the city lies at the heart of a 20-kilometer industrial belt, fed by the 50 million tons of coal mined each year in the nearby hills. When the pollution was at its worst in the late 1990s, the average daily level of particulate matter in the air was over 600 parts per million, far off the hazard scale (the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality Index considers any reading above 200 parts per million as "very unhealthy"). The New York-based research nonprofit Blacksmith Institute once ranked the city alongside Chernobyl on a list of the planet's 10 most contaminated places.
没有比山西省北部更好的例证了，当我来到这个煤矿据点时，看到的是地下那些黑尘漂浮在临汾这座世界上污染最严重的城市的天空中，而这个城市在前半个世纪里一直”享有“这个不值得羡慕的称号。笼罩在阴霾的薄雾中，这个城市位于20公里工业带的中心位置，每年向周边的山上索要5000万吨煤炭。在空气污染最糟糕的90年代末，平均每天空气中微粒比例超过每百万分之600，早已超过危险规模（美国环境保护局的空气质量指数认为任何高于每百万分之200的空气都是”非常不健康“的）。总部在纽约的非盈利性机构铁匠研究所（Blacksmith Institute）将此地与切尔诺贝利（译注：Chernobyl， 乌克兰城市）共同名列地球上个10个污染最严重的城市。
As I approached this blackest of black lands, the smog was so thick it seemed to consume its source. On the outskirts of the city, smokestacks belched carbon and sulfur into the putrid mist that enveloped them. Iron foundries, smelting plants, and cement factories loomed in and out of the haze as I traveled along the roads leading into Linfen. When the driver stopped in the outlying village of Liucunzhen, locals told us they lived most of their lives in smog.
当我走近这块黑色的土地，烟雾浓厚得好像连根都烧起了一样。在城市的郊区，烟囱向周围的薄雾喷出碳和硫磺。在我前往临汾的路上，铸铁厂、冶炼厂、水泥厂在阴霾中隐隐出现。当司机在边远的流村镇（音译）停下时，当地人告诉我们他们已经在烟雾中生活了大半生了。
"We only see the sun for a few days each year," said Zhou Huocun, a community doctor. "The color of our village is black. It is so dirty that nobody airs their quilts outside anymore so we are getting more parasites." He had seen a steady increase in respiratory diseases among his patients as the air quality had deteriorated over the years. The unborn were at even greater risk. Shanxi's birth defect rate is six times higher than the national average (which is itself three to five times the global norm). And coal was to blame.
”每年能看见太阳的日子只有几天“村干部周霍存（音译）说,"我们村总是黑色的，没有人会在外面晒被子，所以我们这寄生虫也多”。随着空气质量的日益下降，他看着这里越来越多的人感染上呼吸性疾病。生育的危险更大。山西的出生死亡比全国平均水平高6 倍（而全国的平均水平已经比世界标准高出3到5倍）。煤炭是罪魁祸首。
Of course, China is now trying to clean up its mines and its skies. On the orders of the central government, Linfen was closing down small, illegal collieries and the worst-polluting factories. I dropped in at the city's environment bureau to ask whether these measures were working. The director, Yang Zhaofen, had progress to report. Of a sort. "Linfen is no longer the most polluted city in China," he announced proudly. "It is the second worst."
当然，中国现在正致力于清理煤矿，明净天空。在中央政府的要求下，临汾已经关闭一些小型，非法的煤矿和重污染工厂。我到访该市的环境部门询问具体措施是如何进行，该局副局长杨兆丰已经取得一个关于排名的进展报告 “临汾不在是中国污染最严重的城市，”他骄傲地说，“现在排第二了”
The local government was taking countermeasures. As in many other cities, it was switching to gas-powered central heating instead of coal. Yang told me it had already shut down hundreds of small mines and were in the process of closing 160 of 196 iron foundries and 57 of 153 coking plants. Small, dirty, and dangerous operations were to be replaced by large, cleaner, and more carefully regulated facilities. But I had heard that before. Over the years, local governments announced coal-mine closures as often as crackdowns on markets of pirated goods. Neither usually lasted long. As soon as the price rose and attention shifted, the illegal mines and fake DVD shops reopened. Old habits die hard, especially when there's money to be made. Precedent suggested many of the closed factories and mines would reopen. As long as the demand for coal persisted, the risks to the environment and health would not go away.
当地政府正在采取对策。正如许多其他城市，临汾也在转型，试图用汽油动力集中供热取代煤。杨告诉我已经有数百家小煤矿关闭，并且计划关闭196家铸铁厂中的160家，153家焦煤厂中的57家。肮脏危险的小作坊将被更清洁和更仔细监管的大型工厂所取代。而我听说过，多年来，当地政府宣布关闭煤矿和打击市场盗版一样，都不会持续很长时间按。一旦价格上涨，注意力转移，非法矿山和盗版DVD商店都重新开业。旧习难改，尤其有利可图的时候。先例表明许多被关闭的工厂和矿山将重新开放。只要存在对煤炭的长期需求，环境和健康风险就不会消失。
With 20 percent of the world's population and an economy that continues to grow, China needs huge amounts of fuel. Deposits of oil and gas are small relative to the country's size, but coal is abundant. When I met with Xiao Yunhan, an energy visionary at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he told me: "Nobody likes coal, even in China. But do you have a better solution for our energy-supply problems?" he said. He expects consumption of coal to double over the following 10 years. For at least another two decades, said Yunhan, China will be trapped in a coal-dependent economy.
世界五分之一的人口以及持续发展的经济使得中国需要大量的燃料。相比起国家的大小，石油天然气的储量要少，但是煤炭依然是丰富的。 当我遇见肖云汉时，这个中科院的能量梦想家告诉我：“没人喜欢煤炭，即便是在中国。但是你对我们的能源供应问题能提出更好的解决方案吗？”他预计在未来十年，煤的消耗量将翻番。在未来至少二十年中，他说，中国的经济将陷入对煤矿的依赖中。
"Even if China utilizes every kind of energy to the maximum level, it is still difficult for us to produce enough energy for economic development. It's not a case of choosing coal or renewables. We need both," the senior scientist said. "We have to use coal, so the best thing we can do is make that use as efficient as possible."
”即便中国将每种能源都用到极致，还是很难提供足够的能源供应经济发展需要。这不是选择煤炭还是选择可再生能源的问题，我们都需要," 以为资深科学家说:"我们必须得用煤，在这种情况下，我们能做的就是尽可能提高它的使用效率“
图片来源：The Great Wall of Pollution