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India’s toxic air is its most immediate environmental problem
印度的有毒空气是其最紧迫的环境问题
Addressing world leaders at the COP26 jamboree in Glasgow this week, Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, listed five commitments to tackle climate change, including a promise to achieve carbon neutrality by 2070 and several shorter-term goals. Mr Modi also took the opportunity to point out that while poor countries bear a mere fraction of the blame for creating the world’s climate mess, some, such as India, have done better at keeping environmental commitments than many rich countries.
印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪(Narendra Modi)本周在格拉斯哥举行的COP26会议上向世界各国领导人发表讲话时，列出了应对气候变化的五项承诺，包括承诺在2070年前实现碳中和，以及若干短期目标。莫迪先生还借此机会指出，虽然穷国在造成世界气候混乱方面只承担了一小部分责任，但有些国家，比如印度，在履行环境承诺方面比许多富国做得更好。
He is right. With 18% of the world’s people, India is reckoned to have caused just 3% of accumulated CO2 emissions. Yet even as Indian leaders repeatedly—and sometimes justifiably—take the moral high ground on climate change’s long-term challenges, their people continue to suffer and die from its immediate, home-grown causes.
他是正确的。印度人口占世界总人口的18%，但其二氧化碳排放量却只占全球总量的3%。然而，即使印度领导人一再（有时是合理的）在应对气候变化的长期挑战时占据道德制高点，他们的人民仍继续因其直接的、本土的原因而受苦和死亡。
Dr Arvind Kumar should know. When he started working as a chest surgeon in Delhi 30 years ago, nine-tenths of lung cancer patients were smokers and nearly all were men over 50. Now half of them do not smoke, 40% are women and their mean age is a decade younger. He regularly sees children with blackened lungs. “The urgent issue we need to face is not CO2,” says Dr Kumar. “It is about our own health and the health of the next generation.” Across this whole region, reckon researchers from the University of Chicago in a recent study, air pollution is likely to reduce life expectancy by an average of more than nine years.
阿尔温德·库马尔医生应该知道。30年前，当他开始在德里担任胸外科医生时，十分之九的肺癌患者是吸烟者，而且几乎都是50岁以上的男性。现在，他们（患者）中有一半人不吸烟，40%是女性，他们的平均年龄年轻了10岁。他经常看到肺部发黑的儿童。"我们需要面对的紧迫问题不是二氧化碳，"库马尔博士说。"这关系到我们自己和下一代的健康。"芝加哥大学的研究人员在最近的一项研究中估计，在整个地区，空气污染可能会使预期寿命平均减少9年以上。
