独立规划委员会在公布批准新南威尔士州历史上最大煤矿项目的理由时，正值全球变暖带来不断加剧的死亡、灾难与绝望之际，这份文件读起来就像是一份人质声明。
he Independent Planning Commission’s published reasons for approving the largest coalmine in New South Wales history in the context of mounting death, disaster and despair brought on by global heating reads like a hostage statement.
在其决议中，委员会承认，将亨特谷运营公司（Hunter Valley Operations）的煤矿开采期限延长19年——从而产生8.09亿吨的温室气体污染——将实质性地加剧全球变暖。专家组成员引用了澳大利亚联邦科学与工业研究组织（CSIRO）的调查结果，即气候变化正在对所有澳大利亚人的生活和生计产生越来越大的影响，而这种影响的严重程度“将取决于全球温室气体排放量减少的速度”。他们拒绝接受将HVO的煤炭留在地下对全球变暖没有影响的观点。
In its decision the commission accepts that the extension of the Hunter Valley Operations’ mine for a further 19 years – resulting 809m tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution – will materially worsen global warming. The panel members cite CSIRO’s finding that climate change is having a growing effect on the lives and livelihoods of all Australians and that the severity of that impact “will depend on the speed at which global greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced”. They reject the idea that keeping HVO’s coal in the ground would make no difference to global warming.
尽管如此，委员会仍然认为，所有这些负面影响都被煤矿开采带来的收入、其对亨特地区经济的核心作用以及1500名员工的生计所“盖过”。
Despite all of this, the commission has still found that all of this is “outweighed” by the revenues coalmining makes, its centrality to the Hunter’s regional economy and the livelihoods of 1,500 people.
委员会这份令人感到突兀且矛盾的声明必须透过现象看本质：它承认了澳大利亚的治理体系无力应对气候危机。这是一个令人震惊且不安的承认，因为几十年来，我们对这些体系的信念一直是倡导采取行动应对气候紧急情况的基石。
The commission’s jarring and contradictory statement must be read for what it is: an admission that Australia’s governance systems are failing to meet the crisis of climate change. It is a shocking and unsettling admission because our faith in these systems has been the foundation of advocacy for action on the climate emergency for decades.
我们投票、我们提交意见书、我们走上法庭、我们与议员会面、我们汇编并呈递证据。所有这些活动都建立对政府体制的信任基础之上，而这些体制现在显然已经未能履行其庄严的公共职责。我们必须认真思考，我们还有什么途径可以用来抵御绝望。
We vote, we make submissions, we go to court, we meet our MPs, we compile and present evidence. All of this activity rests on a belief in the systems of government that have now clearly failed to meet their solemn public duty. We must seriously consider what avenue remains available to us to fend off despair.
委员会听取了来自那些正深受气候危机所致的破坏与损失之苦的民众的直接且令人心碎的证词。这些证词来自为所爱幼童未来命运而悲痛欲绝的祖父母，也来自耐心陈述该矿山气候变化影响之毁灭性证据的科学家。然而，他们最终认定，这一切都不如一家富裕矿业公司声称将带来的经济贡献重要。支持批准该项目的论据是经济性的，且着眼于短期利益。
The commission heard direct, heart-rending testimony from people who are already grappling with the damage and loss brought by the climate crisis, from grandparents in anguish about the lives awaiting the little children they love, from scientists patiently outlining devastating evidence about the mine’s climate change impacts. All of this, they have decided, is less weighty than the economic contribution a rich mining company claims it will make. The argument presented in favour of approval was economic and short-term.
毫无疑问，拒绝该项目将给辛格尔顿和马斯韦尔布鲁克的家庭、企业以及更广泛的社区带来即时的困难。如果延期申请被拒，该矿山将在今年年底关闭。超过1000人将被解雇，当地供应商也将失去业务。
There is no doubt that refusing the project would have caused immediate hardship for families, businesses and the wider community in Singleton and Muswellbrook. Had the extension been refused, the mine would have closed at the end of this year. More than 1,000 people would have been stood down from their work and local suppliers would have lost business.
这种影响在局部地区将是严重的，但却是可以管理的。可以为员工提供支持。可以为该地区提供资金和后盾，以度过这场风暴。亨特地区此前曾经历过类似的动荡，并最终挺了过来。支持该地区度过矿山关闭期的艰难任务，与应对全球灾难性变暖的适应任务相比，简直微不足道。
The impact of this would be locally severe but it could have been managed. The workforce could have been supported. The region could have been given money and backing to weather that storm. The Hunter has been through such disruption before and come through. The difficult task of supporting it through mine closure is nothing to the task of adapting to catastrophic global heating.
澳大利亚正面临对其民主制度信心的危机。这场危机是由这些机构背叛民众所引发的——而没有比未能正视气候紧急状态、未能保护社区免受其最严重后果侵害更大的背叛了。
Australia is facing a crisis of confidence in its democratic institutions. It is a crisis brought on by the betrayal of the people by those institutions – and there is no greater betrayal than this failure to face up to the climate emergency and protect the community from its worst consequences.
随着全球变暖的影响冲击社区、基础设施以及支撑我们社会的自然和经济系统，这场危机将进一步加深。在亨特地区，由“锁门”组织委托进行的民意调查显示，85%的民众在过去五年中经历过极端天气，其中80%的人认为气候变化正在影响这些天气现象。
The crisis will deepen as the effects of global heating assault communities, infrastructure and the natural and economic systems that underpin our society. In the Hunter region, polling commissioned by Lock the Gate has shown that 85% of people have experienced extreme weather in the last five years and 80% of them say they believe climate change is influencing it.
年轻人绝大多数都明白，他们的政府无力阻止煤炭开采和燃煤加剧不断上升的气温、不断飙升的价格以及不断崩溃的生态系统。曾几何时，我鼓励他们温和地参与那些不断让他们失望的公共程序，如今我的良知为此感到不安。
Young people overwhelmingly understand that their governments are failing to stop pollution from coalmining and coal-burning from fuelling the rising heat, the rising prices, the collapsing ecosystems. My conscience is troubled by having encouraged them to engage politely in the public processes that keep failing them.
批准HVO煤矿继续开采，不仅仅是众多气候失败中的又一次失败。这是最终彻底摧毁我对公共机构服务公众利益能力之信念的失败。
The approval of the HVO mine continuing is not just another climate failure among many. It is the failure that finally broke my faith in the capacity of public institutions to serve the public interest.