The biggest coal project before authorities in New South Wales, the Hunter Valley Operations mine, will emit(排放) the equivalent of about 809m tonnes of climate-warming carbon dioxide if it wins approval. That number, for most people, will carry little meaning, as might the calculation that adding that amount of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere will cause an extra 0.00036C of global heating. But what if the public was instead told that that amount of carbon dioxide would expose almost half a million people to unprecedented heat, or kill nearly 15 million coral colonies on the Great Barrier Reef every time it bleaches, or lead to more than 100 additional deaths from heatwaves in Europe to the end of this century.(但假如换一种说法告诉公众：这些二氧化碳会让近50万人暴露在前所未有的高温之下，或每发生一次白化就杀死大堡礁近1500万个珊瑚群落，或到本世纪末在欧洲多造成100多人死于热浪。) All those statistics come from a new tool that translates the emissions from burning fossil fuels into estimated real-world climate effects taken from peer-reviewed(经同行评审的) climate studies.
新南威尔士州当局正在审议的最大煤矿项目——猎人谷运营煤矿（Hunter Valley Operations），一旦获批，将排放相当于约8.09亿吨的温室气体二氧化碳。对大多数人来说，这个数字没什么意义；同样令人无感的，还有这样一个计算结果：把这么多温室气体排入大气，只会让全球升温多出0.00036摄氏度。但假如换一种说法告诉公众：这些二氧化碳会让近50万人暴露在前所未有的高温之下，或每发生一次白化就杀死大堡礁近1500万个珊瑚群落，或到本世纪末在欧洲多造成100多人死于热浪——感受会完全不同。这些数据都来自一款新工具，它把燃烧化石燃料产生的排放，换算成经同行评审的气候研究得出的现实影响估算值。
“Small numbers in global warming can mean catastrophic impacts,” says Prof Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist at the Australian National University who is part of a team launching the Carbon Impacts Tracer.(“全球升温中的小数字，可能意味着灾难性的影响，”澳大利亚国立大学气候科学家莎拉·珀金斯-柯克帕特里克教授说。她是推出“碳影响追踪器”的团队成员之一。)
“全球升温中的小数字，可能意味着灾难性的影响，”澳大利亚国立大学气候科学家莎拉·珀金斯-柯克帕特里克教授说。她是推出“碳影响追踪器”的团队成员之一。
The NSW Independent Planning Commission is expected to make a decision this week about the future of the HVO mine, with the joint(共同的，联合的) owners Yancoal and Glencore(嘉能可，全球最大大宗商品交易商之一) hoping to keep digging at the Hunter Valley site until 2045.
新南威尔士州独立规划委员会预计本周将就猎人谷运营煤矿的未来作出决定，共同所有者兖煤和嘉能可希望在该矿址继续开采至2045年。