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No More Chocolate?

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8 January 2018

By Bronwen

Forget fire, aeroplanes and wheels- chocolate is the greatest invention of mankind but we could soon be about to lose it because of global warming.

Despite scepticism from President Trump, global warming and climate change are very real and the long term effects are being seen already. By 2050, the average temperature of the Earth is set to rise by 2.1°C. This may seem like a tiny number but it is enough to offset the balance of the ecosystem and destroy tropical plants including the cacao plant and the coffee plant. Right now, these plants are already being decimated because of rising temperatures in West Africa over the last few decades. The problem is that rising temperatures are evaporating water in soil before it has the chance to be absorbed by the plant. This in turn dries out the plant and kills it.

It is predicted that unless we dramatically cut our use of carbon and change the way we treat the environment, chocolate may no longer be able to be produced in just 3 decades time.

Unless somebody can come up with a drought resistant cacao plant, we may have to make the most of having chocolate while we still can.

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