Chocolate estimated to run extinct by 2025
This is a satirical website. Don't take it Seriously. It's a joke.
2059 4086 Shares
How can you deal with horrible news if the horrible news is losing one of the best ways of dealing with horrible news?
An article from Erin Brodwin for the Business Insider blared the following headline, "Chocolate is on track to go extinct in 40 years." Apparently, the concern is that cacao plants, which are the natural source of chocolate (otherwise known as happiness), may go extinct by 2050.
In the words of singer-song writer Kate Miller-Heidke, are you bleeping kidding me? How can you drown your sorrows in chocolate without chocolate? Mayonnaise doesn't quite work the same. Is this for real or is this (snicker, snicker) a joke?
Well, cacao plants seem to be increasingly victims of fungal disease and climate change. Climate change may increase coastal flooding, worsen wildfires and hurricanes, foster the spread of insect-borne diseases, destroy coral reefs, threaten hundreds of animal species, and erode our current way of life, but jeopardize chocolate? That would cross the line.
The threat of fungal disease is not new. Back in 2010, Michael Moyer wrote for Scientific American about how the spread of witch’s broom, frosty pod, and other wonderfully named fungal disease have essentially destroyed cacao trees in Central America, their original natural habitat. Scientists are worried that these fungal diseases could jump to other parts of the world and wreak similar havoc on the beloved chocolate-producing plant.
The problem is that cacao plants are somewhat Emo and quite sensitive. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website describes how cacao trees need very specific "rainforest"-esque conditions: fairly uniform temperatures, high humidity, abundant rain, nitrogen-rich soil, and protection from the wind. These conditions currently exist just 20° north and south of the equator (or perhaps in an even narrower 10° north and south of the equator). Right now Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Indonesia are the leading producers of chocolate, but the two West African countries generate over half of the world's chocolate. That leaves the world's chocolate supply rather vulnerable to even small changes in climate. In fact, climate models predict that by the year 2050 a 3.8°F or 2.1°C increase in temperatures and drier conditions will occur in these areas and may further shrink the possible growing areas. Dark times indeed (and I don't mean dark chocolate).
While extinction predictions may be a bit premature, these trends suggest that the future of chocolate may be melting unless something is done. One option is to do something about climate change, which begins with admitting that it exists and substantially curbing pollution, which is otherwise known as pooping all over the Earth and each other.
If climate change is not reversed, can anything be done to save our beloved chocolate? To borrow a quote from the movie Braveheart, “They may take our polar ice caps, our forests, and our planet as we know it, but they’ll never take our chocolate!” In this time of peril, Earth is getting some assistance from Mars. No, not Mars as in the fourth planet from the Sun and J'onn J'onzz. But Mars as in the company that makes chocolate, among other things.
Mars, Inc. has not only pledged to reduce its carbon emissions as part of its "Sustainability in a Generation" program, it is also working with external scientists to develop hardier cacao plants. This includes collaborating with Dr. Jennifer Doudna, the Japan Prize-winning University of California, Berkeley, scientist who is one of the inventors of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) techniques, and her team. CRISPR techniques allow scientists to "edit" genes and potentially create genetically-modified cacao plants that can resist fungal diseases and live in a broader set of conditions.
Of course, the thought of GMO (genetically-modified organisms) chocolate may be a bit scary to you. Moreover, CRISPR is still rather new so time will tell how effective these techniques may be in providing solutions. But if current climate trends continue, life may not be the same box of chocolates to choose from in a few decades.
Again, whether chocolate will actually become extinct in 40 years is up for debate. A lot can change in 40 years, and scientists are saying now that cacao plants are at risk but aren't necessarily predicting that they will disappear from the face of the Earth. Regardless, the threats to chocolate show how precarious our food supply really is. Just because your local grocery store seems to have plenty of food doesn't mean that our food supply will be able to keep up with our growing population and changing conditions. There is already evidence that climate change is adversely affecting different aspects of our food supply, such as the yields of key crops such as wheat and the availability of fish. This may not worry you if you don't care about food, nutrition, and food prices. But chocolate being threatened? That should be a different story.
Article by Joe Mama
This is a satirical website. Don't take it Seriously. It's a joke.
Most Popular
-
1
trudeau approves new canadian flag design Rumor has it Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, working closely with The Honourable Pablo Rodriguezo, Canadian Heritage minister and Quebec Lieutenant, have finalized the new flag design. Trudeau stated "We are very excited to unveil this updated design which better reflects the direction we are moving the country to" Once approved, unveiling is to take place this year on Canada day.