科学美国人60秒 SSS 硬化道路可帮助减排（在线收听）

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

When you walk on a sandy beach, it takes more energy than striding down a sidewalk—because the weight of your body pushes into the sand.

在沙滩上行走比在人行道上行走消耗的能量更多，因为你的身体重量会将你推入沙子里。

Turns out, the same thing is true for vehicles driving on roads.

事实证明，在道路上行驶的车辆也是如此。

"The weight of the vehicles creates a very shallow indentation or, you know, deflection in the pavement—

“交通工具的重量会在路面上造成非常浅的凹痕或弯沉，

and it makes it such that it's continuously driving up a very shallow hill."

这样，车辆就能不断地在非常浅的小山丘上爬坡。”

Jeremy Gregory, a sustainability scientist at M.I.T.

麻省理工学院的可持续性科学家杰里米·格雷戈里说到。

His team modeled how much energy could be saved—and greenhouse gases avoided—by simply hardening the nation's roads and highways.

他的团队模拟了只通过硬化国家道路和高速公路可以节省多少能源以及避免多少温室气体排放。

And they found that stiffening 10 percent of the nation's roads every year could prevent 440 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over the next five decades—

他们发现，每年将国家道路硬化10%，未来50年可减少4.4亿吨二氧化碳当量排放，

enough to offset half a percent of projected transportation sector emissions over that time period.

这足以抵消交通部门在这段时间预计排放量的0.5%。

To put those emissions savings into context—

将这些减排量放入背景中，

that amount is equivalent to how much CO2 you'd spare the planet by keeping a billion barrels of oil in the ground—or by growing seven billion trees—for a decade.

这相当于将10亿桶石油埋在地下或在10年内种植70亿棵树时，地球减少的二氧化碳量。

The results are in the Transportation Research Record.

研究结果在《交通研究记录》上。

As for how to stiffen roads? Gregory says you could mix small amounts of synthetic fibers or carbon nanotubes into paving materials.

至于如何硬化道路？格雷戈里表示，可以将少量的合成纤维或碳纳米管混入铺路材料中。

Or you could pave with cement-based concrete, which is stiffer than asphalt.

或者用比沥青硬的水泥基混凝土铺路。

(It's worth noting the research was funded in part by the Portland Cement Association.)

（值得注意的是，这项研究部分由波特兰水泥协会资助。）

This system could also be a way to shave carbon emissions without some of the usual hurdles.

这个系统还能避开某些常见障碍，来减少碳排放。

"Usually, when it comes to reducing emissions in the transportation sector,

“通常，在提到交通部门减排时，

you're talking about changing policies related to vehicles and also driver behavior, which involves millions and millions of people—

谈论的都是改变与交通工具和驾驶员行为有关、且涉及数百万人生活的政策，

as opposed to changing the way we design and maintain our pavements.

而不会谈论改变我们设计和维护道路的方法。

That's just on the order of thousands of people who are working in transportation agencies."

这可能只涉及交通部门的数千名工作人员。”

And when it comes to retrofitting our streets and highways—those agencies are where you might say the rubber meets the road.

谈到改造我们的道路和高速公路，你可能会说这些机构是“橡胶与道路接触之处”（关键之处）。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。