你愿意为了环保放弃吃巧克力吗？

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.

对许多人来说，巧克力永不过时。特别是复活节快到的时候，巧克力卖得特别快。然而，巧克力并不便宜——所谓“不便宜”，不仅体现在金钱上，也体现在环境影响上。最近，曼彻斯特大学的研究人员探究了巧克力生产过程的碳排放及其它环境影响，结果不容乐观。

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.

他们分析了英国巧克力产品的生产及消耗过程的环境影响，重点分析占90%市场份额的三种巧克力产品。传统巧克力似乎已经失宠，它们输给了深度加工的竞争产品。尽管如此，巧克力依然是英国人最喜爱的甜食产品，整个巧克力工业价值达60亿美元。

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.

英国人平均每人每年消耗8千克巧克力。英国人和大多数人一样热爱巧克力。

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，巧克力的生产过程需要消耗大量资源。生产1千克巧克力需要消耗约1万升水，同时排放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.

大多数人都喜欢吃巧克力，但通常不会关心将可可豆转化为商店销售的巧克力产品需要耗费多少资源。

“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.”

可可豆种植于赤道附近的潮湿气候环境里，主要是西非和美洲中南部。因此，在进入英国、成为我们生产和消耗的巧克力产品之前，它必须跨越千山万水。

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(至少是优质巧克力的主要成分)。科特迪瓦、加纳、印度尼西亚、尼日利亚、厄瓜多尔、巴西等国家是可可豆的主要产国。它们距离英国非常遥远。这意味着，运输过程需要消耗大量资源。包装、冷藏也一样。

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，牛奶工业本身就排放大量温室气体。

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.

总而言之，巧克力对地球环境造成严重影响。研究人员表示，他们并不要求人们停止吃巧克力，但认为人们至少应该意识到这种环境影响。阿扎帕吉总结：

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.

他们之所以进行这项研究，就是为了提升消费者意识，让他们在知情的情况下作出选择。此外，他们也希望这项研究能够推动巧克力工业解决供应链里的重大环境问题，尽可能使巧克力产品符合可持续发展。