The true cost of climate change:

[false_aesthetic]

"You may love chocolate, but you should probably start preparing yourself to say goodbye to it: Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have predicted that cacao plants are likely to go extinct as early as 2050 due to climate change."


Shit just got real, yo!


Scientists Expect Chocolate to Go Extinct by 25

[guido]

Here I thought you were going to tell us we'd all double post now...

Phew...

[ericpmoss]

"You may love chocolate, but you should probably start preparing yourself to say goodbye to it: Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have predicted that cacao plants are likely to go extinct as early as 2050 due to climate change."


Shit just got real, yo!


Scientists Expect Chocolate to Go Extinct by 25

And of course, coffee, since it's altitude-sensitive, and the temperate zones are moving above where the area (and quality soil) is. Oh, and the estimates for melting are being revised again -- upward. Like they say, the generation that lives the best one before the last generation. Woohoo -- my portfolio went up yesterday! :P

[mzilliox]

Im doing my part. I have a 50 acre Cacao farm in Belize and we have planted both local seed stock and known grafted varieties in anticipation of this very thing. I figure by planting more than 50 percent of the farm in local seed stock gives us we have the ability to adapt to change. We will have a varied bank of plants that we can use for root stock or fruit stock if other parts of the farm fail. We also have a piece of land with varied micro climates, and are growing for the specialty market, not the commodity market.

Here's to chocolate in the future, because thats been part of the point of life for me.

[bdaghisallo]

I am sure they'll turn out to be as right about chocolate's coming disappearance as they were about oil twenty years ago. Human ingenuity will inevitably solve this "problem" as it generally does for most challenges we face. And if it doesn't, this may be the one thing that enables me to trim back my lifelong habit of eating too much of it!

[Matthew Strongin]

Snopes says false: https://www.snopes.com/chocolate-extinct-40-years/

I'm a bit indifferent, though, not being a chocolate fiend. If pizza were to go away in 40 years, though, I'd die from heartbreak (or old age).

[vertical_doug]

I think with my button is bigger than your button Mr. President in the White House, I'd be more worried about nuclear winter than global warming. You may want to hedge with frost resistant varieties since hell has frozen over.

Although, I thought the button on his desk was to buzz in diet coke from his assistant. I could be wrong.....

[false_aesthetic]

Although, I thought the button on his desk was to buzz in diet coke from his assistant. I could be wrong.....

"Alexa, get me the Pentagon, I need more diet coke."

[false_aesthetic]

Snopes says false: https://www.snopes.com/chocolate-extinct-40-years/

I'm a bit indifferent, though, not being a chocolate fiend. If pizza were to go away in 40 years, though, I'd die from heartbreak (or old age).

Damn, I've been fooled!

Also, I hear you on pizza. Thank god pizza trees + their fruit thrive in 900*F environments.

[Scott G.]

Once again gummint fails to deliver on a promise.
Where is the d--m global warming when you need it?

[King Of Dirk]

Once again gummint fails to deliver on a promise.
Where is the d--m global warming when you need it?

I guarantee it'll either get warmer, get colder, or stay the same. 100%. You heard it here first.

[mmoore]

I guarantee it'll either get warmer, get colder, or stay the same. 100%. You heard it here first.

similarly, regardless of temperature this rock I currently stand on will still exist.

[MarkC]

New Playskool toy noted in the oval office after Christmas - My First Nuclear Button

More seriously, will be stocking up on Ritual chocolate on next PC visit.

[Matthew Strongin]

similarly, regardless of temperature this rock I currently stand on will still exist.

True. Whether or not it's environment will remain pleasant or hospitable are another thing.

[thollandpe]

similarly, regardless of temperature this rock I currently stand on will still exist.

Let's hope it won't end up like this rock.



Peace.

[SteveP]

as preparation... i am going to eat all the chocolate i can until it disappears from the face of the earth.

[Bewheels]

Climate change ≠ global warming

Unfortunately somehow "climate change" got retranslated into "global warming" over the years.

[72gmc]

^^ memory: a summer day in the museum and the park, then a seat on the riverbank facing the a-bomb dome as night fell. me, my wife and daughters, other people from all corners of the world. bats flying. camera shutters clicking. no one speaking. we sat there for a long time.

[King Of Dirk]

True. Whether or not it's environment will remain pleasant or hospitable are another thing.

It is definitely not going to remain pleasant or hospitable. At least not for us. And by "us" I mean **** sapiens. You and I will be fine, barring a wayward asteroid.


ETA: it's a sad day when a grown man can't type a genus and species without forum software censoring him. Stop the world; I want to get off. That asteroid can't get here soon enough.

[j44ke]

When I was a kid and spent days & days in the outdoors hiking, camping, fishing I got as many ticks as your average Labrador and never had a single problem. Now I meet people who've had some kind of crazy debilitating tick-borne infection (Kris Henry of 44Bikes is one example) and part of the explanation is climate change. I think the genetic/behavioral egotism of human beings as a species makes us particularly receptive to stories of apocalyptic endings for our species. It is hard for us to believe that such a great species as ourselves won't go out with a blinding flash. But I suspect that it will be simply a slow winnowing down of individuals by a whole host of microbes against which we have no immunity or remedy, until some sort of tipping point is reached and then we'll be gone - just a puddle of slime on the floor.