美国国家公共电台 NPR Armed With NASA Data, South Korea Confronts Its Choking Smog

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

South Korea is one of the smoggiest countries in the world. It's common to hear that neighboring China is to blame for that, but a recent NASA study found there's a lot Korea can do on its own to clear the air. Here's NPR's Elise Hu.

ELISE HU, BYLINE¹: Seoul's towering mountains would be a sight to see if a thick industrial haze² didn't blanket the city on so many days. The health effects can be seen in hospitals.

UNIDENTIFIED NURSE: (Speaking Korean).

HU: Patients at Hanyang University Hospital blow into plastic mouthpieces attached to a machine that measures their lung function.

KIM SANG-HEON: Let's see the results.

HU: It's a common test for those who come in complaining of chronic³ cough and difficulty breathing. Dr. Kim Sang-heon says since there's a clear link between pollution and respiratory illnesses, these days, he preaches a lot of dirty-air avoidance to his patients.

KIM: I usually say stay home if they hear it is high.

HU: High pollution is a common occurrence in Seoul, where the fine-particle pollution levels are among the highest in the world. Seoul's air-quality average was unhealthy for sensitive populations or worse on 78 days in 2016. By comparison, Los Angeles air quality only got that bad on two days of the year, and New York's air never hit those levels. Many Koreans are quick to blame neighboring China, whose notorious industrial dust does drift over. But the government wanted to know more about its own, pollution. Enter NASA, represented by its program manager and scientist, Barry Lefer.

BARRY LEFER: We can't fly over China. So this is a way to sample China and sample Korea, and the Koreans are very interested in working with us.

HU: South Korea's government teamed up with NASA for the most ambitious study of air quality here to date. Last year they flew planes at various altitudes above the peninsula, chasing dust and sampling it for a month. This summer...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It's nice to stand in front of a room and begin to tell you some of the things that we learned.

HU: ...Scientists began sharing preliminary results. The question dominating debates in South Korea is how much of the pollution here is homegrown. The answer is complicated. NASA sampled the air at a time when trans-boundary pollution was low, but even still, the results did help it model the atmosphere. Lefer.

LEFER: The models said that over half of the air pollution is coming from local sources and the rest is coming from other countries.

HU: Local sources include vehicle emissions⁴, industrial sites and power plants. Lefer says news that a majority of the pollution here is homegrown is actually good in a key way.

LEFER: You can't do anything about the trans-boundary pollution whereas you can do something about your local sources.

HU: The government is taking some action now. President Moon Jae-in is overseeing a fine-dust task force, shuttering 10 of the country's oldest coal plants and the city of Seoul has begun issuing fine-dust alerts over mobile phones to better inform residents of dangerous days. Kim, the doctor, thinks growing public awareness⁵ of the pollution is working.

KIM: I expect some new change will be given to us.

HU: Armed with more data, the battle to curb⁶ South Korea's pollution problem comes from a new place of knowledge. Elise Hu, NPR News, Seoul.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 haze   

n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊

参考例句：

• I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中，我看不见她。
• He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。

3 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

4 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

5 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

6 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。