Climate change threatens melt the chocolate industry

The impact of global climate change as accelerated by human activity was the topic of recent scientific conference in the small northern New York village of Tupper Lake.

While scientists discussed how to address this serious problem, lame duck President Bush travelled abroad to pooh-pooh the issue yet again.

Bush re-stated his obstructionism that he believes fighting climate change is a great idea, but nobody should do anything until every nation agrees on every last detail. The US won't cut its emissions until Vanautu and Lesotho do the same.

He also framed the argument in a typical false dichotomy between environmental sanity and economic growth.

Non-ideologues around the world, people who actually have to make a living on their own, know that there is no contradiction between the two. They know that if the environment is degraded, making a living is much more difficult. Living itself is more difficult.

The current climate change crisis has rapidly increased desertification in Africa in the last few decades. The decrease in rainfall and resulting desertification has significantly reduced the amount of farmland available in the West African Sahel region. Not surprisingly, nearly the food emergencies in Africa caused by 'natural' phenomena are in the Sahel.

The unnaturally rapid climate change has also caused a major increase in deforestation on the continent. This causes erosion and other physical damage which makes growing crops more difficult. It also eliminates food sources like fruit-bearing trees and meat from the animals that live in the forest.

But if you think climate change's impact comes no closer than the African jungle, you're mistaken.

Warmer winters are already starting to hinder maple production in upstate New York and Vermont. It also risks hurting winter tourism. These are two of the most important motors in the economic of those rural regions.

And if none of this convinces you, then consider this.

According to the corporations themselves (whose only rigid ideology is that of self-interest), one of the greatest threats to global cocoa corps and to the chocolate industry itself is none other than the unnaturally rapid rate of climate change.