The fight within the Greens that led senators to cross the floor(倒戈，投反对票) last week over koala protection in a national park may have finally put a spotlight on(使……受到关注) a bigger issue – one at the heart of(处于……的核心) much of Australia’s promise to act on the climate crisis. It’s this: the country and its polluting industries are too reliant on carbon offsets. The more reliance is placed on them, the more they look like a house of cards.(越依赖它们，它们就越像一座纸牌屋。)
绿党内部围绕国家公园考拉保护的争斗，上周导致几名参议员倒戈。这场风波或许终于让一个更大的问题浮出水面——它正是澳大利亚气候危机行动承诺的核心所在：这个国家及其污染行业过度依赖碳抵消。越依赖它们，它们就越像一座纸牌屋。
Offsets can be a mind-deadening(令人头脑麻木的) subject, but they matter. In Australia, they are known as Australian Carbon Credit Units. Each credit is said to represent one tonne of greenhouse gas that isn’t in the atmosphere and otherwise would have been.(每单位信用据说代表一吨本会进入大气、但实际没有进入大气的温室气体。) They are mostly generated from government-sanctioned(批准的，认可的) projects that are meant to regenerate(使再生，恢复) forests or capture and burn methane released from landfill(垃圾填埋场) sites.
碳抵消可能是个让人昏昏欲睡的话题，但它很重要。在澳大利亚，它被称为澳大利亚碳信用单位。每单位信用据说代表一吨本会进入大气、但实际没有进入大气的温室气体。这些信用主要来自政府批准的项目，旨在恢复森林，或捕获并燃烧垃圾填埋场释放的甲烷。
These type of projects have plenty to recommend them(有很多可取之处). With global heating moving into increasingly dangerous territory, the world needs to retain(保留，保持) and regenerate all the forests it can, and create new ones. It also needs to sharply(急剧地，大幅地) reduce how much methane and carbon dioxide is poured into the atmosphere.
这类项目有很多可取之处。随着全球变暖进入越来越危险的境地，世界需要尽可能保留和恢复所有森林，并创造新的森林。世界还需要大幅减少排入大气的甲烷和二氧化碳。