2013年1月31日 星期四

Gallows Humor, and Smog, Engulf China

藏在霧霾背後的「人治」

Feng Li/Getty Images
1月,北京遭遇重度空氣污染,居民紛紛戴上口罩。

北京——我兒子所在的一所北京公立小學裡,在十歲的孩子中流傳着這樣一個笑話:一名最近 抵達美國的中國男子去看醫生。“醫生,我感覺不舒服。”“你從哪裡來?”“北京。”“吸口這個,”醫生一邊說,一邊拿出根管子,另一頭接着一根汽車的排氣 管。“謝謝,我感覺好多了。”這名男子說。
近些天,隨着灰黃色的煙霧再次籠罩北京,空氣污染指數本月第四次沖高至危險的地步,或者說到基本不可知的“超出測量範圍”的地步,北京流行起了黑色幽默。
令人震驚的是,北京甚至還不是最糟糕的地方:看一眼中國空氣污染指數應用,結果顯示,就在我寫這篇文章時,北京在當日全國污染最嚴重的城市之中只排名第21位。位於北京東南280公里的不幸的工業基地河北省石家莊市,一如既往的位列第一。
據總部位於香港的《南華早報》(South China Morning Post)的報道,本周,中國幾乎有七分之一地區位於霧霾的籠罩之下。
據官方報紙《中國日報》報道,有數百架航班被取消或延誤,其中包括一些國際航班,高速公路也因為“霾”被關閉。報道還說,北京的污染已達到現有的最高級別,即“嚴重污染”級別。
本周二,美國能源情報署(U.S. Energy Information Administration)發佈的一篇報告指出了問題的源頭,報告說,2011年,中國消耗了38億噸煤,佔全球總量的47%,“幾乎等於全球其餘國 家消耗的總和。”報告說,2011年,中國的煤炭消耗增長超過9%。煤炭無疑是今日困擾中國的顆粒物污染的一個關鍵來源,也是溫室氣體引發的全球變暖的一 個主要原因。
事情怎麼會變得這麼糟?
在上周發表的一篇罕見的採訪中,中國國家環境保護局(中國國家環境保護部前身——譯註)第一任局長曲格平把當下的污染直接了當地歸罪於中國"不計代價地追求經濟增長"的心態和中國的政治體制。
發展中國家受到的環境污染通常比發達國家嚴重,然而曲格平對《南華早報》說,過去40年里,污染肆虐,這是“人治”之下經濟增長不受遏制的結果。在中國,“人治”一詞常被用於指稱藐視法律的決策。
“他們的統治對權力缺乏監督,允許政府無視環保方面的法律法規,”《南華早報》在文章中寫道。
文章引用中國第一任環保局局長、83歲曲格平的話說,“我不會說過去40年的環保工作是完全失敗的。”曲格平在1987年到1993年擔任中國國家環境保護局局長。
“但我不得不承認,政府在控制對經濟增長的瘋狂追求方面做的遠遠不夠,”他說,“而且也沒能避免我們作為政策制定者已經預測到的最糟糕的污染情況。”
據《南華早報》報道,1993年後,曲格平又在全國人大環境與資源保護委員會擔任了10年的主任委員。
曲格平說,中國很早就認識到它在高速發展的同時會面臨污染問題,而且還制定了一些具有前瞻性的策略,強調更平衡的發展方案。
“為什麼這些策略從未真正地落實?”他說,“我想這是因為對政府權力缺乏監督。因為權力仍然凌駕於法律之上。”
《南華早報》援引曲格平的評論稱,“中央政府一方面宣稱要協調增長與保護,一方面由於當前的政治體系,它對經濟增長的渴求又不受控制,這兩者間存在明顯矛盾。”
自從20世紀80年代早期經濟開始騰飛起,中國至少經歷了三次污染浪潮,《南華早報》寫道。
第一次是所謂的鄉鎮企業(也就是農村農民經營的企業)的迅速發展所引起的,這次浪潮始於1984年,最終引起了“污染的混亂傳播”。
第二次是1992年後,發展基礎設施和工業項目的熱潮,最終導致主要河流和湖泊受到污染,城市空氣質量惡化。
第三次發生在胡錦濤執政的過去十年。這期間,能源密集、高污染的石化、水泥、鋼鐵廠等重工業建設再度興起,把中國變成了世界上最大的污染國。
曲格平說,“在這樣逐漸增加的壓力之下,控制污染的所有行政命令和科技手段都不足夠了。”
於是,中國就成了現在的樣子,大片地區籠罩在霧霾之中。
翻譯:張薇、陳柳 
 
 
 

Gallows Humor, and Smog, Engulf China

BEIJING - Here's a joke circulating among 10-year-olds at my son's state elementary school in Beijing:
A Chinese man recently arrived in America visits the doctor.
"Doctor, I feel unwell."
"Where have you come from?"
"Beijing."
"Breathe this," the doctor says, holding out a pipe attached to a car exhaust.
"Thanks, I feel much better!" the man says.
Gallows humor is circulating in Beijing these days as a yellowish-gray miasma once again drapes the city and air pollution indices hit hazardous highs or largely unknown, "Beyond Index" territory, for the fourth time this month.
Shockingly, Beijing isn't even the worst place to be: a quick check of the China Air Pollution Index app showed that at the time of writing it was merely the 21st most polluted city in the country today. No. 1, as nearly always, was the unfortunate town of Shijiazhuang, an industrial base about 280 kilometers southwest of Beijing in Hebei province.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that almost one-seventh of China was shrouded in smog this week.
Hundreds of flights, including some international ones, were canceled or delayed and highways shut due to the "haze," the state-run China Daily reported, adding that Beijing's pollution was the highest possible level, "severe."
And, indicating a source of the problem, a report on Tuesday from the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that China consumed 3.8 billion tons of coal in 2011, or 47% of global consumption, "almost as much as the entire rest of the world combined." Coal consumption grew more than 9 percent in 2011, the report said. Coal is, of course, a key source of the particulate pollution plaguing the country today and of global warming via greenhouse gases.
How did things get this bad?
In a rare interview published last week, Qu Geping, China's first environmental protection chief, placed the blame squarely on the country's "economic growth at all costs" mentality and on the political system.
Developing countries commonly suffer from worse pollution than developed ones, yet Mr. Qu told the South China Morning Post that pollution had run wild over the last 40 years as a result of unchecked economic growth under "rule of men," a term often used here to refer to decision-making that flouts the law.
"Their rule imposed no checks on power and allowed governments to ignore environmental protection laws and regulations," the Post wrote in the article.
The article quoted Mr. Qu, 83, China's first environmental protection administrator between 1987 and 1993, as saying, "I would not call the past 40 years' efforts of environmental protection a total failure."
"But I have to admit that governments have done far from enough to rein in the wild pursuit of economic growth," he said, "and failed to avoid some of the worst pollution scenarios we, as policymakers, had predicted."
After 1993, Mr. Qu headed the environment and resource committee of China's Parliament, the National People's Congress, for 10 years, the Post said.
China early recognized it faced a pollution problem amid high-speed growth and had some forward-looking strategies that emphasized a more balanced approach to development, Mr. Qu said.
"Why was the strategy never properly implemented?" he said. "I think it is because there was no supervision of governments. It is because the power is still above the law."
"There was an obvious contradiction in the central government's claim to co-ordinate growth with conservation and its unchecked thirst for economic development rooted in a political system," the newspaper wrote, in a comment attributed to Mr. Qu.
Since the early 1980s, when economic growth took off, China witnessed at least three waves of pollution, the Post wrote.
The first was caused by the boom in so-called township enterprises - businesses run by farmers in the countryside - that started 1984 and led to the "chaotic spreading of pollution."
The second was the rush to develop infrastructure and industrial projects after 1992 that resulted in pollution of major rivers and lakes and the degradation of urban air quality.
The third occurred over the last decade under President Hu Jintao, which saw a renewed wave of building of energy-intensive and highly polluting heavy industries, including petrochemical, cement, iron and steel plants, that turned China into the world's biggest polluter.
"In the face of such mounting pressures, all the administrative orders and technical solutions on pollution control became inadequate," Mr. Qu said.
Leaving China where it is today, with large areas engulfed in smog.
 

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