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On Dec. 5, 1952, a thick layer of fog settled over the streets of London, blanketing the city. This was no ordinary wintery mist, but rather a noxious haze of sulfur dioxide from coal-fired industrial factories and cookstoves in London homes. London's Great Smog hung in the air for five consecutive days; visibility was reduced to mere feet and cars were abandoned or led off the road by police with traffic flares. It was the "nation's worst air pollution disaster" and remains the deadliest smog event on record.
1952年12月5日，一層濃霧籠罩著倫敦的大街小巷，覆蓋了整座城市。這可不是普通冬霧，而是一種由工業燃煤和家庭燃爐產生的有毒二氧化硫煙霧。倫敦濃霧持續籠罩了五天，能見度僅為幾英尺，車輛要么被遺棄，要么被警方清理出了路面。這是英國最嚴重的一次大氣污染災難，也是迄今為止最嚴重的霧霾事件。
According to the Telegraph, the devastation the smog wrought "only became apparent when undertakers reported that they were running out of coffins and florists had sold all their flowers." In the following three months, an estimated 13,000 people died of respiratory complications.
據《電訊報》報道，直到受害者反應棺材短缺、花農表示鮮花售罄，這場霧霾造成的危害才昭然顯現。接下來三個月，將近有13000人死于呼吸道并發癥。
The hazy scenes of London's Great Smog bear a striking resemblence to modern-day images of China's urban centers on their most polluted days. And though China has never had an event to match those four days in London, its pollution problem is persistent and pervasive. In 2010, air pollution contributed to 1.2 million deaths in China. Between 1981 and 2001, particulate levels in its major cities were five times greater than what the United States experienced before 1970.
倫敦霧霾事件的朦朧境況和當下嚴重污染的中國城市的情形有著驚人的相似。盡管中國尚未遭遇倫敦煙霧那樣的事件，其污染狀況也一直持續蔓延。2010年，中國約有120萬人死于空氣污染。1981年至2001年，中國大城市的顆粒物指數是美國在1970年之前的五倍。
And the problem is worsening at an incredible rate. In 2009, the concentration of particulate pollution in the Chinese city of Harbin averaged 101 micrograms per meter, according to the World Health Organization. Four years later, in October 2013, levels were up tenfold, a new record.
而且，其污染問題仍在急劇加重。據世界衛生組織統計，2009年，中國哈爾濱的顆粒物污染濃度達到101微克/米。四年后也就是2013年10月，相關指數已漲了十倍，創下新的記錄。
This week, Gina McCarthy, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said she would be meeting with partners in China in the coming days to address air pollution issues, but was careful to stress that this is not an challenge limited to China. The West, too, has faced hazardous pollution. "We have been there before," she said on Monday, Dec. 2. The comparison bears consideration; what follows is a series of photo pairings -- smog in London then, and in China now.
本周美國國家環保局局長吉娜-麥卡錫表示，接下來她將與中國負責人會晤，力求解決環境污染問題；同時她也謹慎強調，空氣污染不只是中國面臨的挑戰，西方國家也存在嚴重的污染問題。12月2日（星期一），她說：“我們也曾遇過這個問題。” 通過系列圖片來對比當時的倫敦和現在的中國，將很有意義。
London's Great Smog rolled into city's streets on a "mass of cold air," and remained, trapped by a layer of warmer air above. PM 2.5 -- the mass, in micrograms, of particles larger than 2.5 micrometers in a cubic centimeter, a common measure of hazardous air pollution -- rocketed to 1,600, a record China has yet to approach even on its worst days.
倫敦煙霧是伴著大范圍冷空氣席卷整座城市，并將暖空氣隔斷在上層的。根據測量有害空氣污染的常規方法，當時的PM2.5——即量直徑小于2.5微米的物質，高達1600。而中國即便在最嚴重時也沒有這么高的指數。
Perhaps the closest China has come was the smog that settled over Harbin, a city of 10 million people in northeast China, in October. As PM 2.5 climbed to 1,000, the city effectively shut down, closing schools, airports, and highways.
中國受霧霾襲擊最嚴重的城市怕是哈爾濱——一座擁有1000萬人口的東北城市。10月份，哈爾濱的PM2.5值達到1000，政府采取有效措施，關閉了學校、機場和高速。
The Great Smog of 1952 prompted Britain's 1956 Clean Air Act, which led to legislation in the United States. In New York, in particular, pollution had become a major problem: particularly deadly clouds of smog were blamed for 200 deaths in 1963 and 168 more in 1966. These events were pivotal in motivating Congress to establish the EPA and pass landmark clean air laws. Like China today, most of that pollution was caused by burning coal and, to a lesser extent, by heavy traffic in cities like Los Angeles.
1952年煙霧事件后，英國頒布了《1956大氣凈化法》，進而也促進了美國的相關立法。紐約的污染尤為堪憂：1963年，致命霧霾造成200人死亡；1966年，死亡人數增加了168人以上。這些事件有效促使美國國會成立環境保護署并通過了具有里程碑意義的《大氣凈化法》。和當今中國一樣，當時的污染多由燃煤造成，此外像洛杉磯等城市的大量交通廢氣排放也是致因。
"We know what planning can do," McCarthy said of the EPA's work with China. "We know there are many ways in which you can engage your states, and in China's case provinces, to bring a sense of urgency to this issue."
提及環境保護署與中國的合作，麥卡錫表示：“我們知道什么方案行得通，也有很多適用于中國及其問題省份的解決措施，以便提高對此問題的緊迫感。”
"I am hopeful," she said. "One of the reasons I am hopeful is that I know what we've been able to accomplish in the United States."
她還說：“我很有信心。之所以有信心，是因為我清楚美國也曾遇到并成功解決過這個問題。”
