With northern China once again struggling to breathe under a blanket of carcinogenic haze, one of the China’s highest profile antipollution warriors has invited the country’s social media users to vote on whether China should enact a national clean air law.
国北方地区再次笼罩在令人难以呼吸的致癌雾霾之中。这个时候，中国一名最高调的反污染斗士邀请国内社交媒体用户投票表决，中国是否应制定一部全国性的空气清洁法案。
The result is a landslide of such epic proportions, it puts even China’s rubber-stamp legislature to shame.
投票结果是压倒性的，这种赞成比例甚至让中国徒具形式的立法机构都感到羞愧。
In less than 10 hours of voting, nearly 32, 000 microbloggers have said they agree with real estate mogul Pan Shiyi’s call for China to implement a clean air law. Fewer than 250 said they were opposed, while just over 120 said they weren’t sure.
在不到10个小时的投票时间里，有近3.2万名微博用户说，他们赞同房地产大亨潘石屹提出的中国应实施清洁空气法的主张。只有不到250名用户表示反对，略超过120名用户说没想好。
“I’m guessing those who voted ‘no’ are major pollution producers afraid a law would hurt their interests or they’re creatures who don’t breathe, ” wrote one Weibo user.
一名微博用户写道：我猜那些投反对票的人要么就是污染大户，害怕法规会伤害自身利益，要么就是不用呼吸的生物。
The poll, posted to Sina Corp.’s Weibo microblogging platform, is hardly scientific. Still, it’s tempting to compare the margin of approval to those of important votes before the National People’s Congress, which passed Premier Wen Jiabao’s 2012 budget plan with a much narrower 2, 291-to-438 vote last March.
这个在新浪微博进行的民调说不上有多科学，不过即便如此，记者仍不禁将这次调查的赞成比例与全国人民代表大会上的重要投票进行了对比。去年3月，全国人大以2,291票赞成、438票反对通过了温家宝提出的2012年政府预算，其赞成比例上远小于潘石屹的空气法案。
“Controlling air pollution requires the participation of every citizen. Most important is implementing laws, ” wrote Mr. Pan, himself a legislative representative. “I will use my position as an NPC delegate to submit the results of this vote to the NPC and the government.”
北京市人大代表潘石屹在微博上写道：治理空气污染需要全民参与，最重要的是立法。我会以人大代表的身份将投票结果提交人大和政府。
The cloud of pollution presently afflicting northern China covers 1.3 million square kilometers an area more than three times the size of California the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. Levels of fine particulate pollution, known as PM2.5, have been at “hazardous” levels in Beijing since early Sunday morning, according to pollution monitors at the U.S. embassy in eastern Beijing. Air quality index readings from the embassy briefly crept above 500 late Monday night a level once described by the embassy’s @BeijingAir feed on Twitter as “crazy bad” but now labeled simply “beyond index.”
中国官方通讯社新华社(Xinhua news agency)周二报道说，影响中国北方地区的污染雾霾达130万平方公里，是美国加州面积的三倍多。据位于北京东部美国驻华大使馆内的监测站显示，北京微粒污染物PM2.5的浓度自周日清晨以来就一直处于“有毒害”的水平，周一深夜更是一度超过500。该使馆曾在推特(Twitter)账户@BeijingAir上说，这样的空气质量“极其糟糕”(crazy bad)。不过现在它只是将其称为“爆表”。
The government’s own air-quality index readings were in the 400s in most parts of Beijing on Tuesday afternoon.
周二下午，中国政府监测到的北京大部分地区空气质量指数在400以上。
The current stretch of suffocating air comes only two weeks after the U.S. embassy air-quality index readings soared into the 700s in what local expatriates took to calling the “airpocalypse.” The lingering pollution has raised concerns in recent days. A pediatric hospital in downtown Beijing has treated a record 9, 000 children this month, mostly flu, pneumonia, tracheitis, bronchitis and asthma patients, Xinhua said. Face masks, a rare sight on the streets of the capital, have started to become more common.
北京出现这次令人窒息的空气污染距离美国驻华大使馆上次监测到空气质量指数飙升至700以上仅有两周时间。那次，生活在北京的外籍人士开始把这种天气称作“空气末日”(airpocalypse)。持续不散的污染这些天引起了人们的担忧。新华社报道，位于市中心的一家儿童医院本月日门诊量达到了破纪录的9,000人次，患儿主要得的是流感、肺炎、气管炎、支气管炎和哮喘等疾病。原本在北京大街上难得一见的口罩现在已经越来越流行。
Pummeled by state media and online commentators alike, Beijing environmental authorities responded last week by unveiling a raft of pollution-reduction measures, including the removal of 180, 000 old vehicles from the city’s roads, the closing of 450 heavily polluting plants and the replacement of tens of thousands of coal-burning boilers.
在国有媒体和网络评论人士共同声讨下，北京环保部门上周做出回应，推出了诸多防治污染的措施，包括淘汰老旧机动车18万辆、淘汰退出450多家高污染企业，以及对数万个燃煤锅炉进行改造。
That announcement met with skepticism online, with many casting doubt on the city’s ability to follow through. Other critics called for a more comprehensive solution, noting that pollution is even worse in other cities in China.
这些措施引发了中国网民的质疑，许多人怀疑北京能否有能力兑现这些承诺。还有一些批评人士要求政府拿出更全面的解决方案，他们指出中国一些其他城市的污染程度更加严重。
National air quality legislation has proven pivotal in other countries. The UK Clean Air Act of 1956, passed four years after London’s “Great Smog” led the deaths of as many 12, 000 people, helped London finally start to shake off the air pollution problems that had sullied its reputation and the lungs of its residents for decades. The U.S.’s Clean Air Act, meanwhile, is credited by the Union of Concerned Scientists with preventing more than 400, 000 premature deaths since it was first passed in 1963.
国家空气质量法规在一些国家都曾发挥重要作用。在1952年导致1.2万人死亡的伦敦烟雾事件过去四年之后，英国于1956年通过了《清洁空气法案》(UK Clean Air Act)，这部法案最终帮助伦敦摆脱了几十年来破坏着城市声誉和居民健康的空气污染问题。同时，忧思科学家联盟(Union of Concerned Scientists)认为，1963年美国首次通过的清洁空气法案避免了超过40万过早死亡案例的发生。
Debate over whether China should pass a similar law puts China’s leadership in a tight spot. Despite mounting public anger over pollution and a growing willingness among many Chinese to forego a certain amount of economic growth in exchange for a cleaner environment, any attempt to impose meaningful restrictions on polluters will inevitably run up against powerful vested interests.
关于中国是否应该通过一部类似法律的讨论让中国的领导人陷入两难境地。尽管公众的愤怒情绪日益高涨，许多人也越来越甘愿为了更好的环境而牺牲一部分经济增长，但任何对污染者进行限制的尝试都会不可避免地会挑战强大的既得利益集团。
Take diesel emissions, which are a major contributor to PM2.5 levels in urban areas. The committee in charge of setting standards for diesel fuel in China is dominated by oil refiners, who are loathe to produce cleaner fuel because of the country’s highly regulated fuel prices. As The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month, China’s Finance Ministry is currently deadlocked in negotiations with oil refiners over subsidies to help offset the costs of producing cleaner diesel.
以柴油车排放为例，柴油燃烧产生的汽车尾气是城市地区PM2.5污染物的主要来源。负责制定柴油燃料标准的委员会由炼油厂把持，由于中国的燃料价格受到严格的监管，炼油厂不愿意生产更清洁的燃料。《华尔街日报》本月早些时候报道说，中国财政部与炼油厂关于补贴的谈判已经陷入僵局，炼油厂希望获得补贴，以部分冲抵生产更清洁柴油的较高成本。
“Can you get a law passed? Once it’s passed, can you enforce it? Will there be supervision?” one Sina Weibo user wrote in response to Mr. Pan’s poll.
一名新浪微博用户对潘石屹发起的投票评论道，你能保证立法被通过吗？一旦通过，你能确保法律的实施吗？会有人监督吗？
Mr. Pan, chairman of Soho China, is among a handful of wealthy Chinese who’ve taken up the clean air cause. In late 2011, he was the driving force behind an online campaign aimed at forcing the Beijing municipal government to release data on PM2.5, considered one of the most dangerous forms of pollution because it penetrates deeply into the lungs and other tissues.
Soho中国的董事长潘石屹是致力于推动环保事业的少数中国富人之一。2011年年末，他在网上发起了要求北京市政府公布PM2.5数据的倡议。PM2.5被认为是最危险的污染物之一，因为它能够直接进入人体的肺部和其他组织。
The city eventually relented, though Mr. Pan has said authorities at one point accused him of being used by “hostile foreign forces” bent on embarrassing China. Many of his supporters have since suggested the real hostile forces were those impeding efforts to clean up the country’s environment.
北京最终同意发布PM2.5数值。不过潘石屹说，中国有关部门曾指责他被境外反华势力利用了。此后，他的许多支持者表示，真正的反华势力是那些阻碍中国治理环境问题的人。
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