揭露前22大空气污染源

少数工业设施排放了大量的有毒物质和温室气体

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仅100家设施,在20,000家设施中,在2014年产生了美国工业有毒空气污染的三分之一。另有100家设施排放了工业温室气体排放量的三分之一,在7,000个排放这种气体的装置中。根据公共廉正中心创建排名的调查,22个“超级污染源”站点同时出现在两个名单上(如下所示)。许多是燃煤发电厂,有些排名靠前是因为它们规模非常大。这个群体对美国工业空气污染负有重大责任。(自2014年以来,178家设施中有8家已关闭,但没有一家是超级污染源。)该中心的研究人员还使用人口普查数据表明,有毒物质名单上的100家设施中的大多数位于贫困社区,这些社区的收入低于全国平均水平。好消息是,清理这些站点可以大大减少与呼吸道疾病和该国对气候变化的贡献有关的有毒化合物。研究人员表示,现有法规已经足够,但必须加强执法力度。

图片来源:Tiffany Farrant-Gonzalez;资料来源:“美国超级污染源”,作者:Jamie Smith Hopkins。由公共廉正中心于2016年9月29日在线发布 www.publicintegrity.org/2016/09/29/20248/america-s-super-polluters

Mark Fischetti has been a senior editor at 大众科学 for 17 years and has covered sustainability issues, including climate, weather, environment, energy, food, water, biodiversity, population, and more. He assigns and edits feature articles, commentaries and news by journalists and scientists and also writes in those formats. He edits History, the magazine's department looking at science advances throughout time. He was founding managing editor of two spinoff magazines: 大众科学 Mind and 大众科学 Earth 3.0. His 2001 freelance article for the magazine, "Drowning New Orleans," predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. His video What Happens to Your Body after You Die?, has more than 12 million views on YouTube. Fischetti has written freelance articles for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Fast Company, and many others. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti is a former managing editor of IEEE Spectrum Magazine and of Family Business Magazine. He has a physics degree and has twice served as the Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union's Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism, which celebrates a career of outstanding reporting on the Earth and space sciences. He has appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many news radio stations. Follow Fischetti on X (formerly Twitter) @markfischetti

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大众科学 Magazine Vol 316 Issue 1This article was originally published with the title “Top Air Polluters” in 大众科学 Magazine Vol. 316 No. 1 (), p. 72
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0117-72
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