This story is originally Appear Barrier It is part of Climate cooperation.
Only four West African countries are the basis of an industry worth more than $ 100 billion. In the tropics of Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria, cocoa trees bearing dozens of seeds. Once harvested, these modest beans are dried, roasted and treated in something loved around the world.
Chocolate has been cleared for thousands of years, especially on Valentine’s Day, is an unambiguous love symbol. But as irregular weather continues to increase in increased sweets costs, sweet treatment has become a symbol of less romantic: climate change.
Two reports were published last week that warming pays temperatures that exceed the perfect range of cocoa growth in countries at the heart of the world, especially during the initial harvest seasons. The search reveals how to roast burning oil, charcoal and methane the cocoa belt on the planet High chocolate prices.
“One of the foods that the world loves most at risk is due to climate change,” said Christina Dal, Vice President of Science in Non -profit climate, who wrote one of the reports. “I hope that human activity is difficult to grow human activity that is difficult to grow cocoa, and this may cause this food that we love a lot.”
on 70 percent Among the world cocoa is grown in West Africa, with Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria, the largest producers. The largest part of the rest is grown in places with similar climates that are not far from the equator, such as Indonesia and Ecuador. Trees grow better in Forest rainwood conditions With high humidity, abundant rain, nitrogen -rich soil, and natural wind institutions. Exposure to temperatures higher than 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit provokes water stress, hinders plant growth, and leads to the erosion of the quality and amount of seeds produced by trees.
Last year, warming added at least six weeks of that threshold in nearly two -thirds of cocoa -producing areas throughout Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria, which contributes to a. CatastrophicAccording to Central Climate Report.
The researchers studied temperature data in the region and estimates that may have been experienced during the past decade in a world without high human temperature. They found that between 2015 and 2024, climate change increased from the number of days that each country suffers from a higher temperature than the ideal of cocoa growth by two to four weeks annually. Most of those most heated days came during the main crop cycle, when plants open and produce beans. Warning also changes rainy patterns and drought, which facilitates the spread Destroyer Such as the rotting of the pod, and contributing to the deterioration of the soil. Another new study Low rates of pollination and temperatures are found higher than the average in Ghana combined to reduce yield.
