餐厅菜单上的碳足迹

广西 龙绪玲

随着环保意识的增强，在日常生活中，人们对碳排放也越来越关注。英国一家餐厅就把自家食物的碳排放量标注在了菜单上，方便顾客点餐。

The menu at The Canteen in south⁃west England doesn't just let diners know how much a dish costs. They can also check its carbon footprint. The menu notes that a real beef burger's emissions (排放物) are 10 times the amount of its vegan(严格素食主义者)choice.

The Canteen became, in July, the first restaurant to agree to put the dishes' car⁃bon footprints on the menu. The restau⁃rant's manager,Liam Stock,called the move“a way to see what we are doing, to under⁃stand and improve ourselves”.

The average British person has more than 10 tons carbon footprints annually,ac⁃cording to UK government figures. The UK has set the ambitious goal of reducing harmful emissions by 78 percent by 2035,compared with 1990 figures, in order to meet its international climate change com⁃mitments.

Switching to a plant⁃based diet is one of the most effective ways for individuals to reduce their carbon footprints,experts said.Whether diners will let carbon footprints influence their order choices remains to be seen, but Stock said the menu innovation(创新)has gained interest and support.“In England,if you're a big chain restaurant,it's the law that you have to have calories on(the menu),”he said.

To calculate the dishes'carbon foot⁃prints, The Canteen sent its recipes and the source of the ingredients to a special⁃ized company called MyEmissions. It is able to calculate the carbon influences from“cradle to store”, taking into account farming, processing, transport and packag⁃ing.

“If I was choosing between two dishes, maybe depending on how hungry I was, I might choose the one with a lower carbon footprint,”said Nathan Johnson, a 43⁃year⁃old diner at the restaurant.

Reading Check

How did The Canteen calculate the dishes'carbon footprints?

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