What Cities From Chicago to Washington, DC, Look Like Under a Blanket of Wildfire Smoke
What Cities From Chicago to Washington, DC, Look Like Under a Blanket of Wildfire Smoke
从芝加哥到华盛顿特区：野火烟霾笼罩下的城市景象
Hot dogs, beach days, and iced tea on the porch are some of the rites of summer. But in an era of global warming, a new rite has emerged: choking down smoke from wildfires burning hundreds of miles or more away. 热狗、海滩日和门廊上的冰茶，这些都是夏日的仪式。但在全球变暖的时代，一种新的仪式出现了：被迫吸入数百甚至上千英里外野火燃烧产生的烟霾。
The Midwest, Northeast, and parts of Canada have been blitzed with thick smoke that turned skies an eerie shade of orange and triggered widespread air quality alerts. The source? Fires burning in Minnesota as well as western Ontario. 美国中西部、东北部以及加拿大多个地区被浓烟笼罩，天空呈现出诡异的橙色，并引发了广泛的空气质量警报。烟霾的源头是什么？是明尼苏达州以及安大略省西部正在燃烧的野火。
Canada is where the bulk of the fires are burning, with 119 out of control blazes across the country as of Friday afternoon. The fires are burning so intensely that smoke is rising into the atmosphere and getting whisked on the jet stream eastward. That’s how Chicago and Detroit ended up with the worst air quality in the world on Friday. New York and Washington, DC, cracked the top 10 list, too. 加拿大是此次野火的主要燃烧地，截至周五下午，全国共有 119 处失控火灾。火势极其猛烈，烟雾升入大气层后，被高空急流带向东方。这就是为什么芝加哥和底特律在周五出现了全球最差的空气质量，纽约和华盛顿特区也进入了榜单前十。
The unhealthy air has cities telling residents to stay indoors and residents searching for ways to reduce their exposure to harmful wildfire smoke. While fresh air is expected to arrive in at least some locations this weekend, the fires show no signs of abating and it could mean more smoke is in store later this summer. 不健康的空气促使各城市呼吁居民留在室内，居民们也在寻找减少接触有害野火烟雾的方法。虽然预计本周末至少部分地区将迎来新鲜空气，但火势目前没有减弱的迹象，这意味着今年夏天晚些时候可能会有更多的烟霾来袭。
Burning fossil fuels has increased the odds of destructive wildfires—and with them, more frequent smoke events. The orange sky days hitting the East Coast this week harken back to 2023, when Canada’s worst wildfire season on record sent smoke streaming into the region. Similar scenes have played out in Europe this summer as fires rip through Spain, and we’ve seen orange skies in places as far apart as Australia and California at various times the past few years. 燃烧化石燃料增加了破坏性野火发生的几率，随之而来的是更频繁的烟霾事件。本周袭击东海岸的“橙色天空日”让人回想起 2023 年，当时加拿大有记录以来最严重的野火季节将烟雾吹向了该地区。今年夏天，随着火灾席卷西班牙，欧洲也出现了类似的场景；在过去几年里，我们曾在澳大利亚和加利福尼亚等相隔遥远的地方多次目睹过橙色的天空。
Research published last year shows matters are only likely to get worse unless the world winds down its use of coal, oil, and gas. The Nature study found that wildfire smoke is projected to cause 71,420 excess deaths annually by mid-century in the US alone, a 73 percent increase compared to the 2010s. Between now and then, the researchers estimate, up to 1.9 million people in the US will die due to smoke-related health issues. 去年发表的研究表明，除非全球减少煤炭、石油和天然气的使用，否则情况只会变得更糟。《自然》杂志的研究发现，预计到本世纪中叶，仅在美国，野火烟雾每年就将导致 71,420 人超额死亡，与 2010 年代相比增加了 73%。研究人员估计，从现在到那时，美国将有多达 190 万人因烟雾相关的健康问题而死亡。
Below is a look at what this week’s smoke invasion looks like. It’s almost certainly a precursor to worse outbreaks if temperatures keep rising. 以下是本周烟霾入侵的景象。如果气温持续升高，这几乎可以肯定是未来更严重爆发的前兆。
(Note: The original article concludes with a series of photo captions for various cities including Toronto, New York, Jersey City, Detroit, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, St. Paul, Philadelphia, and Chicago.)
(注：原文结尾为多座城市——包括多伦多、纽约、泽西市、底特律、华盛顿特区、明尼阿波利斯、圣保罗、费城和芝加哥——的图片说明。)