你愿意為了環(huán)保放棄吃巧克力嗎？

For many people, chocolate is always in style. Especially with Easter fast approaching, chocolate is melting from the shelves just like it melts in your mouth. But while we don’t often think about it, chocolate isn’t cheap — not necessarily in terms of money, but in terms of environmental impact. A recent study by researchers at The University of Manchester has looked at the carbon footprint and other environmental impacts of product, and the results aren’t pretty.

對許多人來說，巧克力永不過時(shí)。特別是復(fù)活節(jié)快到的時(shí)候，巧克力賣得特別快。然而，巧克力并不便宜——所謂“不便宜”，不僅體現(xiàn)在金錢上，也體現(xiàn)在環(huán)境影響上。最近，曼徹斯特大學(xué)的研究人員探究了巧克力生產(chǎn)過程的碳排放及其它環(huán)境影響，結(jié)果不容樂觀。

The study analyzed lifecycle environmental impacts associated with chocolate products made and consumed in the UK, focusing on three products which make 90% of the market: ‘moulded chocolate’, ‘chocolate countlines’ and ‘chocolates in bag’. Yes, sadly, good old-fashioned chocolate seems to have fallen out of favor to its heavily processed competitors. But even so, chocolate is the UK’s favorite confectionary product, with the whole industry being worth over almost $6 billion.

他們分析了英國巧克力產(chǎn)品的生產(chǎn)及消耗過程的環(huán)境影響，重點(diǎn)分析占90%市場份額的三種巧克力產(chǎn)品。傳統(tǒng)巧克力似乎已經(jīng)失寵，它們輸給了深度加工的競爭產(chǎn)品。盡管如此，巧克力依然是英國人最喜愛的甜食產(chǎn)品，整個巧克力工業(yè)價(jià)值達(dá)60億美元。

The average British person consumes 8 kg per year, which is equivalent to around 157 Mars bars. Like most people, the Brits love their chocolate.

英國人平均每人每年消耗8千克巧克力。英國人和大多數(shù)人一樣熱愛巧克力。

But here’s the thing: chocolate takes a lot of resources to produce. A kilogram of chocolate requires about 10,000?l of water to produce and emits 2.9–4.2?kg?CO2 .Professor Adisa Azapagic, Head of Sustainable Industrial Systems at the Manchester University and study author, says:

然而，巧克力的生產(chǎn)過程需要消耗大量資源。生產(chǎn)1千克巧克力需要消耗約1萬升水，同時(shí)排放2.9-4.2千克二氧化碳。教授Adisa Azapagic表示：

“Most of us love chocolate, but don’t often think of what it takes to get from cocoa beans to the chocolate products we buy in the shop.

大多數(shù)人都喜歡吃巧克力，但通常不會關(guān)心將可可豆轉(zhuǎn)化為商店銷售的巧克力產(chǎn)品需要耗費(fèi)多少資源。

“Cocoa is cultivated around the equator in humid climate conditions, mainly in West Africa and Central and South America so it has to travel some distance before it makes it into the chocolate products we produce and consume in the UK.”

可可豆種植于赤道附近的潮濕氣候環(huán)境里，主要是西非和美洲中南部。因此，在進(jìn)入英國、成為我們生產(chǎn)和消耗的巧克力產(chǎn)品之前，它必須跨越千山萬水。

Cocoa, the main ingredient of chocolate (at least in good chocolate) is mainly cultivated around the equator in humid climate conditions. Countries like Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Ecuador, and Brazil are the major producers of cocoa beans. These are all quite far away from the UK, meaning that transportation also consumes a lot of resources. Packaging, and in some cases, refrigeration, are also significant.

可可是巧克力的主要成分(至少是優(yōu)質(zhì)巧克力的主要成分)?？铺氐贤?、加納、印度尼西亞、尼日利亞、厄瓜多爾、巴西等國家是可可豆的主要產(chǎn)國。它們距離英國非常遙遠(yuǎn)。這意味著，運(yùn)輸過程需要消耗大量資源。包裝、冷藏也一樣。

But it’s not just the cocoa — the milk powder required to make milk chocolates is also very energy intensive, and the milk industry itself produces massive greenhouse gas emissions.

此外，制作牛奶巧克力所需的奶粉也十分耗能，牛奶工業(yè)本身就排放大量溫室氣體。

The bottom line is, chocolate takes a big toll on our planet. Researchers aren’t asking that people stop consuming it, but they’re urging people to at least be aware of this impact.

總而言之，巧克力對地球環(huán)境造成嚴(yán)重影響。研究人員表示，他們并不要求人們停止吃巧克力，但認(rèn)為人們至少應(yīng)該意識到這種環(huán)境影響。阿扎帕吉總結(jié)：

The point of this study is to raise consumers’ awareness and enable more informed choices. Also, we hope this work will help the chocolates industry to target the environmental hotspots in the supply chains and make chocolate products as sustainable as possible.

他們之所以進(jìn)行這項(xiàng)研究，就是為了提升消費(fèi)者意識，讓他們在知情的情況下作出選擇。此外，他們也希望這項(xiàng)研究能夠推動巧克力工業(yè)解決供應(yīng)鏈里的重大環(huán)境問題，盡可能使巧克力產(chǎn)品符合可持續(xù)發(fā)展。