Is This What It takes?

So I read in Food Politics today that in about 20 years there may be a dramatic drop in chocolate production due to global warming. Apparently with just a temperature increase of only 1 percent (which is what they predict by then), the areas of the world in West Africa that produce the plants that supply half of the world's chocolate will be unable to produce adequate cocoa due to depleted growing conditions.

As an avid chocolate lover, this causes me great distress. For two reasons. No wait, for three reasons.

1) I love chocolate and I hold great fear in my heart knowing that there may come a time in which the chocolate that I know and love will be either unavailable or only able to come in my possession by paying an obscene amount of money. Neither of these will result in a good outcome.

2) They will now need to create a genetically modified cocoa plant that will be resistant to the adverse growing conditions, such as drought, which will cause a giant uproar for all of those opposed to GM foods.

3) It could be something such as the loss of chocolate to make the world wake up and realize that the impact of global warming is affecting something close to home - your sweet cravings! What I mean is that it seems that is just isn't enough that we're gobbling up fossil fuels and destroying our planet at an accelerated rate in a way that people realize that it is affecting them personally. I mean, yeah, global warming is affecting our climate (daily temperatures, storm patterns and intensities..etc), causing major melting of the earth's ice causing changes in ocean/sea levels, acidification of the oceans, causing droughts which affect crops and cause more wildfires, and even screwing up some animals migration patterns. But really, how does this affect me?? That is what most people think since they can't see these things first hand.  It might take something like the loss of chocolate to make people smarten up and do something energy-saving for once. That's sad.

Could they just start growing the plants in areas that are 1% lower in temperature than the new temperature? Travel a little more south with the plants and see how they survive down there?  OK, it would be much better to just slow global warming way way down, but it was just a thought that crossed my mind. Anything to make the cocoa plants survive!

Take a peek for yourself at: http://www.foodnavigator.com/content/view/print/568593