本届上海世博会以城市生活为主题，可谓匠心独具(show originality)。在这个城市人口超过人类总数一半的21世纪初叶，在这个城市化进程最迅猛的阶段。我们不禁要猜想：28年后，人类的生活将发生怎样的变化？哪些终将逝去，哪些即将到来。

当下，全球城市化进度迅猛。在城市人口超过全球人口总数一半的21世纪初叶，“城市”成为上海世博会的主题别有深义。
Today, the world is rapidly urbanizing. With half of the world population expected to live in cities by the early part of the 21st century, the Shanghai 2010 World Expo’s focus on a better city bears profound meaning.

28年后的城市生活又将会是什么样子？这里是一些假设：一些事物即将出现，另一些则将消失。
What might future cities look like 28 years from now? Here are some scenarios: things to come, things to go.

洁净世界 Zero waste

垃圾处理是许多城市的顽疾之一。除一些可循环利用的垃圾之外，其余废弃物都是通过填埋或燃烧的方式进行处理，这样一来势必污染环境。塑料垃圾被深埋地下几十年都无法降解。全球垃圾产生速度要远远超过垃圾处理速度。
Waste disposal is one of the biggest headaches for cities. Apart from recyclable waste, everything is buried or incinerated, only to pollute the environment. Plastic waste remains underground for several decades. The world produces much more garbage that it can dispose of.

如今在世博会上，所有垃圾都被送到压缩站，经过分类、过滤、净化、除臭、压缩后，最终排放到指定地点。在北京阿苏卫地区，人们将厨房垃圾转化成有机肥，用于小区绿化。
Now at the Expo, all waste is delivered to a compression station where the waste is sorted, filtered, decontaminated, deodorized and compressed before finally being disposed of at designated spots. In Beijing, people living in the Asuwei area turn their household waste into organic fertilizers which are used to grow plants at residence communities.

春运将成为历史
No more transportation problems during Spring Festival

春节是中国人最重要的节日，人们纷纷返家过年，无数中国人为此头疼不已。超过20亿人次出行，造成“买票难，返乡难”的局面。
The Spring Festival, the most important Chinese holiday when everyone returns home, has caused headaches for millions of Chinese. More than 2 billion people travel at the same time, making obtaining travel tickets and the journey difficult.

但28年后，春运不再是难题。到2020年，中国铁路营运里程将达到到12万公里以上，形成一个覆盖全国90％以上人口的快速客运网。到那时，中国大部分地区都已经是城市，人们不必到别处就业，这样一来就不会出现这样大规模的人口流动了。
But in 28 years, Spring Festival travel may not be a problem at all. China plans to have more than 120,000 kilometers of railway and a rapid transportation network that will serve 90 percent of the population by 2020. And because most of China will be cities, people will not have to go to other places to find a job, so migration will no longer be so large-scale.

报纸将消失 Newspapers to disappear

美国学者菲利普•迈耶预言，2043年将成为报纸的末日。日本《每日新闻》原总编歌川令三则确信报纸将于2030年消失。
American scholar Philip Meyer predicts that newspaper will come to an end in 2043. Utagawa Reizou, former editor-in-chief of The Mainichi Daily News, believes that the newspaper will be gone in 2030.

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