「氣候友善」的肉？監管機構加強審查宣傳口號

“Climate-smart.” “Regeneratively grown.” “Sustainable.”

「氣候智慧型」。「再生養殖」。「永續」。

If you’re wondering about all those labels on meat and poultry at the grocery store, so too, it turns out, is the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

如果你對店裡貼這類標籤的肉類禽類感到疑惑，其實美國農業部也有相同疑問。

The agency, in an update to its industry guidelines published this week, signaled that it’s paying closer attention to how companies back up the new environmental buzzwords and said it “strongly encourages” meat and poultry purveyors to get those claims verified by independent third parties.

該部會本周發布的行業指南更新表明，他們更密切關注企業如何支持新的環境流行用語，並「強烈鼓勵」肉類和家禽肉類生產商，讓這些用語由獨立第三方驗證。

Food companies have long had to get USDA approval for their labels. That has applied to terms such as “cage free” eggs or “grass fed” beef. The last update to the guidelines was in 2019.

食品公司的標籤長久以來都需要農業部批准，如「放養」雞蛋和「草飼」牛肉這類專門名詞都適用。指南上次更新是在2019年。

In this week’s update to the guidance, the USDA took note of some of the latest environment-related marketing claims, such as “climate-friendly.” It said it “strongly encouraged” meat producers to provide the USDA’s food-safety arm with “data or studies to support environment-related claims on their label.”

在本周的指南更新中，美國農業部關注其中一些最新環境相關行銷用語，如「環境友善」。他們「強烈鼓勵」肉類生產商提供美國農業部食品安全部門「數據或研究，以支持標籤用語」。

The agency said third-party verification “helps ensure that such claims are truthful and not misleading,” although advocacy groups point out that these verification services are themselves of varying quality.

該部會表示，第三方驗證「會協助確保這類用語真實且沒有誤導」，儘管倡議團體指出，這些驗證服務本身就品質參差不齊。

The agency’s guidance follows growing concern by environmental advocates and consumer protection groups about what’s often called greenwashing, or the practice of making misleading claims about a product’s environmental impact. And it reflects growing scrutiny by courts and regulators around the world on the labeling of products aimed at consumers concerned about the environment.

該部會的指導方針，伴隨著環境倡議者和消費者保護團體日益憂心所謂的漂綠，或對產品的環境影響作出誤導性聲明這類行為。這也反映出全球法院和監管機構，對於針對關注環境的消費者產品標籤審查日益嚴格。

For instance, earlier this year, a national court in Denmark told Danish Crown, the country’s biggest pork producer, that it was misleading to label its pork “climate-controlled.” The company discontinued that phrase along with another climate claim.

例如今年稍早，丹麥國家法院告訴該國最大豬肉生產商「丹麥皇冠」，將豬肉貼上「環境控管」標籤具有誤導性。該公司已中止使用那個詞語及另一個氣候用語。

In New York, state Attorney General Letitia James has sued JBS, the meat multinational, for making “sweeping representations” about neutralizing its emissions in the coming years but offering “no viable plan.” JBS asked the court to dismiss the case.

在紐約，州檢察長詹樂霞起訴跨國肉品公司JBS，稱其針對未來幾年排放量中和做出「廣泛描述」，但「沒有提供可行計畫」。JBS請求法院駁回此案。

The marketing claims reflect how brands are trying to meet consumer demands. In the United States, sales of consumer products that are labeled green or sustainable are growing twice as fast as those that are not, according to research from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

行銷用語反映品牌試圖符合消費者要求。紐約大學史登商學院研究指出，在美國，貼有綠色或永續標籤的消費產品銷量成長速度是沒貼的兩倍。

極端氣候惹禍 全美橋梁崩塌風險增

On a 35°C day this summer, New York City’s Third Avenue Bridge, connecting the Bronx and Manhattan, got stuck in the open position for hours. As heat and flooding scorched and scoured the Midwest, a steel railroad bridge connecting Iowa with South Dakota collapsed under surging waters. In Lewiston, Maine, a bridge closed after the pavement buckled from fluctuating temperatures.

紐約市連結布朗克斯與曼哈頓的第三大道橋，在今夏氣溫達攝氏35度的某天卡在開啟狀態數小時。隨著高溫與洪水席捲中西部，連結愛荷華州與南達科他州的一座火車鐵橋因河水暴漲而坍塌。在緬因州路厄斯頓市，氣溫起伏導致路面變形，一座橋梁被迫封閉。

America’s bridges, a quarter of which were built before 1960, were already in need of repair. But now, extreme heat and increased flooding linked to climate change are accelerating the disintegration of the nation’s bridges, engineers say, essentially causing them to age prematurely.

四分之一美國橋梁建於1960年以前，原已需要整修。但如今有關氣候變遷的極端高溫與更頻繁洪水正加速該國橋梁解體，工程師說，實質上造成它們提前老化。

The result is a quiet but growing threat to the safe movement of people and goods around the country, and another example of how climate change is reshaping daily life in ways Americans may not realize.

結果是對全美民眾和貨物的安全運輸帶來寂靜但與日俱增的威脅，也再次顯示氣候變遷正以美國人可能沒有發覺的方式重塑日常生活。

“We have a bridge crisis that is specifically tied to extreme weather events,” said Paul Chinowsky, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder who researches the effects of climate change on infrastructure. “These are not things that would happen under normal climate circumstances. These are not things that we’ve ever seen at this rate.”

研究氣候變遷對基礎設施影響的美國波爾德科羅拉多大學土木工程教授奇諾斯基說，「我們正面臨一場與極端氣候事件緊密相連的橋梁危機。這不是正常氣候條件下會發生的事情，這不是我們曾見過以這種速度發生的事情」。

Bridges designed and built decades ago with materials not intended to withstand sharp temperature swings are now rapidly swelling and contracting, leaving them weakened.

幾十年前設計與建造的橋梁，使用的建材並未預期須承受氣溫劇烈變化，如今快速熱漲冷縮讓其變得脆弱。

“It’s getting so hot that the pieces that hold the concrete and steel, those bridges can literally fall apart like Tinkertoys,” Chinowsky said.

奇諾斯基表示，「氣溫變得這麼熱，支撐混凝土與鋼材的組件和那些橋梁可能像積木一樣解體」。

As temperatures reached the highest in recorded history this year, much of the nation’s infrastructure, from highways to runways, has suffered. But bridges face particular risks.

隨著今年氣溫創歷史新高，從高速公路到機場跑道，全美許多基礎設施受到影響，但橋梁面臨特別的風險。

A study in the journal PLOS ONE found that extreme temperatures resulting from climate change could cause 1 in 4 steel bridges in the United States to collapse by 2050. By 2040, failures caused by extreme heat could require widespread bridge repairs and closures, researchers found.

刊載於PLOS ONE期刊的一項研究發現，到2050年，氣候變遷導致的極端氣溫恐讓美國四分之一鋼橋坍塌。研究人員發現，到2040年，極端高溫造成的故障，可能導致廣泛的橋梁維修與封閉。

Studies show that climate change has caused more rapid shifts between extreme heat and cold, said Royce Floyd, a professor of engineering at the University of Oklahoma. Those seesawing temperatures can cause pavement to squeeze from both sides onto a span, forcing the road and steel to buckle or crack, or even pushing steel beams out of alignment, Floyd found.

奧克拉荷馬大學工程教授佛洛伊德表示，研究顯示，氣候變遷導致極端熱與冷之間更加迅速轉變。佛洛伊德發現，那些氣溫來回變化，可能造成路面由兩端擠壓橋梁，迫使道路與鋼材彎曲或龜裂，甚至導致鋼梁錯位。