Never Mind

It seems that stories about the demise of chocolate are premature. Scopes has a rather scathing commentary:

In the waning hours of 2017, like a politician holding inconvenient news for a Friday afternoon, Business Insider published a terrifying headline: “Chocolate is on track to go extinct in 40 years.” That claim was repeated uncritically around the web as the story gained viral strength, capping a year of difficult news.

Contrary to its click-ready headline, however, the primary focus of article concerned a joint effort by scientists with the UC Berkeley Innovative Genomics Institute and the Mars candy company to create a genetically modified form of cacao — the plant used in chocolate production — resistant to the future effects of climate change and habitat loss.

The motivation for such an effort, which remains largely theoretical, rests on sound (but not at all new) research highlighting the likely negative effects of climate change on the world’s major cocoa producing countries. As an introduction to their article, the first item on Business Insider’s three point summary reads:

Cacao plants are slated to disappear by as early as 2050 thanks to warmer temperatures and dryer weather conditions.

The above sentence, which is the prime reason for the story’s viral success, is a wholly inaccurate representation of both the article it tops, and the research concerning climate change and cocoa production it purports to rest on. The body of the actual story presents a slightly less apocalyptic description of the situation[.]

It goes on -- read the whole thing.
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