污染随温度峰值达到峰值--中国数字科技馆
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污染随温度峰值达到峰值

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曲目数: | 最新发布时间: 2018-02-05 浏览数:
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As temperatures rise, energy demands peak, with a corresponding increase in air pollutants. Christopher Intagliata reports.

随着气温升高,能量需求达到峰值,而大气污染也随之加重。克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔报道。

 

撰文/播音:克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔(Christopher Intagliata)

翻译:郭鑫鹏

审校:杨枭

 

You may have noticed your summertime electricity bills, when you’re cranking the A-C, are more pricey than your wintertime payments. That’s because air-conditioning is an electricity hog. And when a whole city or region turns on the thermostat, utilities have to meet that increased demand somehow.

你可能已经注意到,在夏季当你开启了空调,电费账单比起冬季时更加昂贵。这是因为空调耗电很大。当整个城市或地区都开启了温度调节器,电力公司就需要通过某种方式满足这样增长的需求。

 

“This is often when we turn on the oldest plants or the dirtier plants.” Tracey Holloway, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “Some of these older plants that only run on fuel oil or run on coal only run on the hottest days.”

“这在我们使用那些最老式、落后的设备时很常见。”麦迪逊威斯康星大学大气学家特蕾西·霍洛韦(Tracey Holloway)说。“在最热的日子中,这些老旧设备只以燃油或煤作为燃料。”

 

Using data from the EPA, Holloway and her team studied how air pollutants respond when the temperature goes up. They found that across the eastern U.S., for every degree Celsius temperature rise, power plants belched out 140,000 metric tons of additional carbon dioxide. And emissions of the pollutants sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides rose three and a half percent per extra degree of heat, averaged across the region.

霍洛韦和她的团队使用美国环保署(EPA)的数据,研究当气温升高时空气污染物有怎样的变化。他们发现在整个美国东部,每摄氏温度的升高,发电厂会产出额外140000公吨的二氧化碳。而在整个地区,污染物二氧化硫和氮氧化物的排放量在该地区平均增加了百分之三点五的额外热量。。

 

That’s especially bad, because hot summer days are the worst days to pump out more pollution. “These hot days, when we turn on the air conditioning across the U.S. or the state also happen to be the most chemically reactive days. Every unit of air pollution going into the air is that much more likely to form ozone.” And ozone itself is a potent air pollutant. The study is in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. [David Abel et al., Response of Power Plant Emissions to Ambient Temperature in the Eastern United States]

这相当糟糕,因为酷热的夏季最不适合排放污染。“当整个美国或整个州的人民都开启空调,这些酷暑天便成为了化学反应最活跃的日子。排放进空气中的每单位大气污染物都可能会形成臭氧。”而臭氧本身就是一种严重的大气污染物。这项研究发表在《环境科学与技术》上。

 

Holloway says the answer to this summertime pollution peak may be an energy source that thrives on hot, sunny days. “If we could be getting solar electricity during this peak time it may offset this hot weather midday peak and be a great solution for avoiding having to turn on those peaking power plants.” In other words: why not use the sun, to keep cool.

霍洛韦说,夏季污染出现高峰的原因是大量能耗源。“如果我们可以在这样耗能高峰时利用更多太阳能,它便可以抵消酷热正午时的额外耗电,这样便不用启动那些峰值发电站了。“换句话说:我们为什么不利用太阳,来让我们保持凉爽。

 

-Christopher Intagliata

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/pollution-peaks-when-temperatures-top-out/


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