社交網絡上的北京空氣末日衆生相

As Beijing enacted emergency measures on Tuesday to cope with the city’s first “red alert” over air pollution, images and stories of woe on social media documented the smog that is keeping schoolchildren and factory workers at home and some vehicles off the roads.

本週二，北京全市採取緊急措施，應對該市首次發佈的空氣污染“紅色預警”。這次霧霾危機致使學生和工廠工人留在家中，一些車輛無法上路。人們在社交媒體上發佈的圖片和痛苦的自述，記錄了危機的過程。

China’s state news agency, offering a stark contrast to current conditions, published images of pollution-free days. It did not say when the photographs of clear blue skies were taken: days of heavy smog that were off the charts started in late November, producing levels beyond the measure of the air-quality index.

中國官方通訊社則發佈了一些無污染時候的照片，與目前狀況形成了鮮明對比。這些照片中的天空清澈湛藍，拍攝時間沒有披露：破紀錄的重度霧霾從11月下旬就開始出現，其嚴重程度超出了空氣質量指數的測量範圍。

Edward Wong, The New York Times’s bureau chief in China, published images and reaction on Twitter, including an item that circulated the trending nickname #airpocalypse that some have given to the crisis:

《紐約時報》北京分社社長黃安偉(Edward Wong)在Twitter上貼出了圖片和人們對霧霾的反應。一些人給該危機加上了#airpocalypse（“空氣末日”）的標籤，黃安偉的一個帖子中就使用了這個熱門標籤：

Even far from street-level, the situation looked grim. A satellite image showed an opaque patch smothering the regionaround Beijing. The image was captured on Dec. 7, the day Chinese officials declared there would be a red alert.

即使在遠離街道的高度，形勢看上去也很嚴峻。在衛星圖像中，北京周邊地區呈渾濁狀態。這幅圖像攝於12月7日，中國官員就是在當天發佈了紅色預警。

Many residents have tried to adapt to the pollution, which was blanketing their city well before Tuesday’s alert, a fact of life highlighted in a first-person account written by Mr. Wong more than two years ago.

在本週二的預警發佈很久之前，霧霾污染就籠罩着北京城，黃安偉兩年前曾用第一人稱敘述描寫這個現實；很多北京居民都試圖對此做出應對。

Among the commonplace precautions are the use of air filters in homes and surgical masks for those venturing outside. Still, from smoking to exercising in public, many stubbornly stuck to their daily activities, even if they did need to adapt a bit. Others, it appeared, had no choice but to go to work.

常見的防護措施包括在室內安裝空氣過濾器，冒險外出的時候戴口罩。不過很多人仍頑固地堅持開展日常活動，無論是吸菸還是到公共場所做運動，即便他們確實需要做些調整。另外一些人別無選擇，不得不去上班。