評(píng)論
打印
Science and technology: Air pollution: Blown away
科技：空氣污染：吹走它
Retired jet engines could help clear the smog that smothered big cities.
退役噴射發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)可以用來驅(qū)逐籠罩大城市的霧霾。
To land at Indira Gandhi Airport is to descend from clear skies to brown ones.
飛機(jī)在英迪拉甘地機(jī)場(chǎng)著陸的過程中，天空會(huì)由明朗轉(zhuǎn)為棕黃。
Delhi’s air is toxic.
德里的空氣是有毒的。
According to the World Health Organisation, India’s capital has the most polluted atmosphere of all the world’s big cities.
據(jù)世界衛(wèi)生組織報(bào)道，印度首都是全世界空氣污染最嚴(yán)重的大城市。
The government is trying to introduce rules that will curb emissions—allowing private cars to be driven only on alternate days, for example, and enforcing better emissions standards for all vehicles.
政府正努力制定控制排放的條例，比如：私家車單雙數(shù)出行、強(qiáng)制提高所有車輛的排放標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。
But implementing these ideas, even if that can be done successfully, will change things only slowly.
但即使這些方法都能順利實(shí)施，情況也不會(huì)立刻好轉(zhuǎn)。
A quick fix would help.
速效對(duì)策將有所幫助。
And Moshe Alamaro, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thinks he has one.
麻省理工學(xué)院的一名研究員Moshe Alamaro有一個(gè)速效對(duì)策。
His idea is to take a jet engine, put it next to one of India’s dirty coal-fired power plants, point its exhaust nozzle at the sky and then switch it on.
他的想法是在印度骯臟的燃煤發(fā)電廠的旁邊放置一個(gè)噴氣發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)，將其排氣噴嘴對(duì)準(zhǔn)天空然后開啟。
His hope is that the jet’s exhaust will disrupt a meteorological phenomenon known as “inversion”, in which a layer of warm air settles over cooler air, trapping it, and that the rising stream of exhaust will carry off the tiny particles of matter that smog is composed of.
他希望噴氣機(jī)的排氣能破壞“逆溫”這一氣象現(xiàn)象（逆溫層里暖空氣位于冷空氣之上，困住冷空氣），上升的排氣能帶走形成霧霾的細(xì)小顆粒物質(zhì)。
Inversion exacerbates air pollution in Delhi and in many other cities, from Los Angeles to Tehran.
逆溫加劇了德里市和許多其他城市的空氣污染，這些城市從洛杉磯一路到德黑蘭。
A particularly intense example caused the Great Smog of London in 1952, when four days of air pollution contributed to 12,000 deaths.
最嚴(yán)重的便是1952年倫敦?zé)熿F事件——持續(xù)四天的空氣污染導(dǎo)致了12000人死亡。
Dr Alamaro thinks a jet engine could punch through the inversion layer to create a “virtual chimney” which would carry the trapped pollution above it, so that it could be dispersed in the wider atmosphere.
Alamaro博士認(rèn)為，噴射發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)可以打破逆溫層，制造一個(gè)“虛擬煙囪”，將被困住的污染物帶到逆溫層之上，這樣污染物便可以分散到更廣闊的大氣層中了。
He calculates that all the emissions from a gigawatt coal-fired power plant could be lifted away using a single engine with a nozzle speed of 460 metres a second.
根據(jù)他的計(jì)算，用一個(gè)噴氣速度為460米/秒的噴射發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)就可以帶走一個(gè)千兆瓦燃煤電廠的全部排放量。
However, he has not calculated whether a jet engine could disrupt the inversion layer and allow the pollution to escape the city—so he is now going to test that hypothesis.
然而他還沒有算出一個(gè)噴氣發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)是否足以穿透逆溫層并把污染物帶出城市，所以他現(xiàn)在要驗(yàn)證這一假設(shè)。
Within eight months, Dr Alamaro plans to put one of his updrafters next to a coal-fired power plant and monitor what happens using a fleet of drones.
在接下來的八個(gè)月內(nèi)，Alamaro博士計(jì)劃將氣流上升裝置放在燃煤發(fā)電廠旁邊并用一隊(duì)無人機(jī)進(jìn)行監(jiān)控。
He is in discussions with Tata Group, a conglomerate with an electricity-generating arm, to run it next to one of the firm’s power stations.
他正在與塔塔集團(tuán)（擁有一家發(fā)電廠）進(jìn)行商議，準(zhǔn)備在該公司的一家發(fā)電站旁進(jìn)行實(shí)驗(yàn)。
考研英語時(shí)事閱讀
