This story originally Appeared in the GRT and is part of the cooperation of the weather desk.
Only four West African countries are the basis of an industry worth more than $ 100 billion. In tropical nations Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameron and Nigeria, rows of cocoa trees containing dozens of seeds. After harvesting, this humble bean is dried, roasted and processed around the world.
Chocolate has wished for the Hazaras, and especially on Valentine’s Day is an unimaginable sign of love. But since the increasing irregular weather continues to continue the costs of sweets, sweet treatment has become a much less romantic symbol: changing the weather.
Two reports released last week showed that warming up beyond the optimal range of cocoa growth in countries at the heart of the world’s supply, especially in the initial harvest seasons. The study shows how scorching oil, coal and methane are cutting the planet’s cocoa belt and rising prices for chocolate.
“One of the foods that the world loves more is at risk because of climate change,” said Christina Dal, Vice President of Science at the Nonprofit Climate Center. “I hope to make cocoa growth harder by hearing human activities, it may cause people to stop as a species and think about our priorities, and whether we can and should prioritize It is measures to limit the future of the weather and the harm to the food.
About 70 percent of the world’s cocoa rises in West Africa, the largest producer of Ivory, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria. Much of the rest grows in places with similar climates not far from the equator, such as Indonesia and Ecuador. Trees grow best in the conditions of rainy forests with high moisture, excessive rain, nitrogen -rich soil and natural inflatable buffers. Exposure to temperatures above 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit causes water stress, prevents plant growth and eliminates the quality and quantity of trees.
Last year, warming added at least six weeks of days above that threshold in almost two -thirds of Kaka -producing areas across the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria, which may help in catastrophic harvesting. Central Report
Researchers have examined temperature data for the region and estimating what may have experienced in a world without human warming over the past decade. They found that between 2015 and 2024, climate change has the number of days each country experiences the temperature range above the ideal for cocoa growth on average two to four weeks a year. Most of those warmer days during the main product cycle, when the plants flourish and produce beans. Warming also changes rain patterns, accelerate drought, facilitates the spread of devastating diseases such as pod caries, and soil destruction. Another new study showed that low pollination and temperature above average in Ghana were combined to limit efficiency.
