在澳大利亞東部多處燃起森林大火之后，總理莫里森作出了可悲的回應。他領導的政府將會為此付出政治代價。
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A haze of smoke has made the skies over Bondi Beach look more like those in New Delhi. The death toll has risen. Bushfires have raged across Australia amid a heatwave that has sent temperatures soaring to record levels more common in the Middle East. The scale of the country’s wildfire emergency has few precedents. But it has been exacerbated by a regrettable lack of leadership from the prime minister, Scott Morrison. Beyond Australia’s shores, his government stands as a reproach to any leaders tempted to follow its lamentable response to the deepening threat of climate change.
煙霧籠罩下，邦迪海灘(Bondi Beach)上空看上去更像新德里的天空。死亡人數在上升。林火在澳大利亞全國各地肆虐，一場熱浪使氣溫飆升至創紀錄水平；這樣的高溫本來在中東更為常見。這次的林火緊急情況的規模在澳大利亞鮮有先例。但總理斯科特?莫里森(Scott Morrison)令人遺憾的領導不力使情況更加嚴重。面對不斷加劇的氣候變化威脅，他領導的政府做出可悲的回應，在澳大利亞以外，他的政府必定會給任何試圖效仿這種做法的領導人帶來恥辱。
Mr Morrison has long been a cheerful volunteer in the pisive climate battles that have ravaged the political landscape in Australia, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel exporters. One of his predecessors, Tony Abbott, made history in 2014 by repealing a national carbon tax. Mr Morrison made international news himself in 2017 when as Treasurer, he brandished a lump of coal on the floor of the parliament to taunt critics he claimed had a “pathological fear” of the fuel.
澳大利亞是世界最大化石燃料出口國之一。在這場已嚴重影響澳大利亞政局的引起分歧的氣候斗爭中，莫里森長期以來一直是無所謂的志愿者。他的前任之一托尼?阿博特(Tony Abbott)在2014年通過廢除碳稅創造了歷史。莫里森本人在2017年成為國際頭條新聞，當時身為財政部長的他在議會大廳揮舞一塊煤炭嘲諷批評者，稱后者對這種燃料懷有“病態的恐懼”。
Photo credit: Getty Images
He became prime minister last year after a coup in his centre-right Liberal party ousted the cosmopolitan former investment banker Malcolm Turnbull, whose agenda had included a greener energy policy. This year, Mr Morrison confounded expectations by leading his coalition government to yet another election victory, having campaigned in favour of a vast Queensland coal mine.
去年，莫里森所屬的中間偏右翼的自由黨內發生了政變，前投資銀行家、世界主義的馬爾科姆?特恩布爾(Malcolm Turnbull)被趕下臺（特恩布爾的議程包括更注重環保的能源政策），此后，莫里森成為總理。今年，莫里森出人意料地領導他的聯合政府取得又一次選舉勝利，他在競選期間曾支持昆士蘭州的一座大型煤礦。
Against this background, when blazing bushfires broke out across eastern Australia, Mr Morrison stumbled. Eager to play down scientists’ warnings that a hotter, drier climate would help to make fires more frequent and intense, his ministers’ initial response to the fires smacked of politically calculated complacency. The deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, said Australia had endured fires “since time began” and victims did not need the “ravings” of “woke capital city greenies”. Two weeks ago, when Sydney was blanketed in a thick haze of smoke, Mr Morrison gave a press conference in the city where he appeared more eager to discuss a religious freedom bill than bushfires.
在這種背景下，在澳大利亞東部多處燃起林火后，莫里森作出笨拙的反應。他手下的部長級官員們急于否定科學家們的警告，即更熱、更干燥的氣候將使林火更加頻繁和來勢兇猛，因而在最初對林火作出的回應暴露出帶有政治盤算的自滿。副總理邁克爾?麥考馬克(Michael McCormack)竟稱，澳大利亞“自從時間開始”就忍受林火，受害者不需要“覺醒的首都環保人士”的“胡言亂語”。兩周前，當悉尼被濃煙籠罩時，莫里森在該市舉行記者會，不過他似乎更熱衷于討論一項宗教自由法案，而不是林火。
Photo credit: Getty Images
As the fires blazed on last week, Mr Morrison abruptly disappeared to parts unknown. “Where the bloody hell are you?” asked critics, using a campaign slogan commissioned when Mr Morrison ran the government’s Tourism Australia agency. Bizarrely, his office initially said reports he was on holiday in Hawaii were wrong. As anger surged over his absence, and two firefighters were killed, the prime minister broke cover to say he had indeed been in Hawaii but was coming home.
上周，在林火肆虐之際，莫里森卻突然不知所蹤。“你到底在哪里？”批評者問道，借用莫里森執掌澳大利亞旅游局(Tourism Australia)時的一句宣傳口號。奇葩的是，他的辦公室最初聲稱，有關他在夏威夷度假的報道是錯誤的。隨著各方對他不知去向的憤怒升溫，同時兩名消防員喪生，這位總理打破沉默，承認自己確實在夏威夷，但馬上就會回國。
This sorry domestic spectacle has been compounded by Mr Morrison’s behaviour on the international stage. At UN climate talks in Madrid this month, his government was accused of trying to weaken rules for the 2015 Paris agreement and making feeble efforts to meet its emissions targets.
莫里森在國際舞臺上的舉動加劇了這種令人遺憾的國內事態。在本月在馬德里舉行的聯合國氣候談判中，他的政府被指責試圖削弱2015年巴黎氣候協定的規則，并且只為達到其排放目標做出微弱努力。
Photo credit: Getty Images
Mr Morrison often argues that Australia accounts for just 1.3 per cent of global carbon emissions. Setting aside the fact that its per capita emissions are among the world’s highest, it is true that cutting pollution in Australia alone would not physically prevent its bushfires, or the devastating floods and drought it has endured in recent times. Global warming requires a global response. But that response will never come if wealthy nations such as Australia continue to behave as if climate breakdown is a problem for others. Mr Morrison is now paying a political cost for his inaction. A far higher price will be paid in future for the bleak litany of climate failures his government represents.
莫里森經常辯稱，澳大利亞僅占全球碳排放總量的1.3%。撇開該國的人均排放量在世界上“名列前茅”這個事實，沒錯，僅僅在澳大利亞減少污染無法完全阻止其林火，也無法阻止該國近年遭遇的嚴重洪災和旱災。全球變暖需要全球應對。但是，如果像澳大利亞這樣的富國繼續表現得就好像氣候反常是其他國家的問題，那么這種全球應對將永遠不會有。莫里森正在因其無所作為而付出政治代價。未來，他的政府所代表的在氣候方面一系列可悲的失敗將會釀成高得多的代價。
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