pestilence
一昨日のIHTにあった記事です。pestilenceは「疫病、ペスト」ですが、「やっかりなもの、悩ましいもの」という比喩的な意味がありますのでチェックしてください。なお、カタカナの影響で「ペスト」＝「pest」と結んでしまいがちですが、「疫病、ペスト」を表すもともとの語はpestilenceです。（UG）
Scientist Says Pollution From China Is Killing a Japanese Island’s Trees
YAKUSHIMA, Japan — A mysterious pestilence has befallen this island’s primeval forests, leaving behind the bleached, skeletal remains of dead trees that now dot the dark green mountainsides. Osamu Nagafuchi, an environmental engineer with a passion for the island and its rugged terrain, believes he knows the culprit: airborne pollutants from smog-belching China, hundreds of miles upwind.
For years, Mr. Nagafuchi’s theory was ignored by fellow scientists and even mocked by bureaucrats in the national government who administer the forests on this southwestern island.
But Japan has begun taking his warnings more seriously, as the nation has been gripped by a national health scare over rising levels of potentially dangerous airborne particles that have swept into other parts of Japan and that many now believe were produced by China, its huge and rapidly industrializing neighbor.
