緊迫的環境汙染問題（上）
Urgency: Environmental Pollution (I)
林巍
Lin Wei
去年春節回北京，撲面而來的是前所未有的霧霾；整日昏天昏地，讓人感到堵悶。人們戴著口罩、帽子、頭巾、沙鏡，在擁擠的人群、車輛中搶路、奔波、躲閃……
As soon as we got to Beijing for Spring Festival last year, we entered a city shrouded in a thick blanket of fog and haze, where people could hardly breathe under the dark sky, wearing gauze masks, hats, scarves and glasses, rushing and searching among the crowd.
不久，就得到了我的兩個好朋友先後得肺癌去世的消息，其中一個是著名的攝影家鄧偉。我們成為朋友已有二十餘年，一起做過很多事，包括辦出國手續，出國後，也一直保持聯繫。他不抽菸、不喝酒，生活節儉而有規律，何以就得了肺癌，且如此突然離世？我到了他家，其家人對我說，不排除與環境汙染有關……
Before long, I was horrified to know that two of my best friends had just died of lung cancer, including the well-known photographer Mr. Deng Wei, who had been a very disciplined person, never touching cigarettes or alcohol. Over the past 20 years of our friendship, we shared the same experience of applying to study abroad, among many other things, and had frequent contact even overseas. The constant heavy air pollution in Beijing over past decades shouldn’t be ruled out as one of the causes of his sudden death, according to his family.
對於環境汙染的危害性，過去總以為，與自己在空間和時間上還有著相當的距離，因為地球太大，而自我太小。現在，我有了可謂「切膚之痛」；它不再遙遠，而就在眼前！
It was thought the detrimental effects of environmental pollution are still in somewhere rather remote from where we are, given the magnitude of the earth in relation to our tiny beings. Now the pain is so piercing! It is happening in no other places but here.
對於眼前汙染的原因，有著不同的解讀，如城市人口太稠密、私家車太多、能源使用不合理、粗放式生產與經營等等。
There are different causes to blame for the current pollution, such as the density of urban population, the ever-crowded private cars, the irrational use of energy and extensive production and operation and so on.
從人與物質世界的根本關係來看，就經濟發展與生活質量而言，這種汙染實質上是一種發展失衡的結果。
Considering the fundamental relations between man and natural world, economic development and the quality of life, however, pollution of this kind, in my view, has been attributed to imbalanced development.
（林巍 譯）