人类为何不停的开采煤矿?

　　What countries are the biggest users of coal?

　　China is the biggest consumer of coal in the world, followed by the United States. The U.S. consumes about 1 billion tons of coal per year. China consumes about 1.6 billion tons for electricity generation and heating.

　　中国是世界上最大的煤炭消费国，其次就是美国。美国每年要消费大约10 亿吨煤，而中国则要消费约16亿吨煤用于发热发电。

　　 What are the projections for the future use of coal?

　　That’s really up in the air. It will depend upon whether we use cap-and-trade as a means of putting a ceiling on the emission of carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global climate change. Under such a policy, there would be a cap on greenhouse gas emissions from most sources, including electric utilities.

　　这个问题还没有确切答案，这要看人们是否会将“限额交易” 作为一种限制二氧化碳及其他加剧全球气候变化的气体排放的手段。在这种政策的指导下，对于包括电力设施在内的多数温室气体来源，其温室气体排放量会被设置上限。

　　Such a policy would tend to reduce the amount of coal used, because burning coal produces large quantities of carbon dioxide.But given the worldwide reliance on coal to generate electricity, it is likely that large quantities of coal will be used for the foreseeable future.

　　这种政策可能会倾向于减少煤炭的使用，因为煤炭的燃烧会产生大量二氧化碳。不过，鉴于世界范围内都依赖煤炭发电，在可预见的未来中，大量的煤仍有可能被使用。