REAL LIFE NEWS: NO, CHOCOLATE ISN’T GOING TO GO EXTINCT (PHEW!)
by Hazed
Towards the end of last year chocolate lovers like myself got a real scare, as headlines started to appear warning us that chocolate could be extinct in forty years.
Oh no! I’d better start stockpiling.
The click-baity headlines, however, were wildly exaggerating the actual facts. The original article on Business Insider, which used the terrifying headline, “Chocolate is on track to go extinct in 40 years,” and which set the ball rolling across the media, was actually attached to a much more sensible article about scientists from UK Berkeley and the Mars confectionary company collaborating to genetically modify the cacoa bean so it would be resistant to the future effects of climate change and habitat loss.
Yes, there are pressures on growing the cocoa bean because of climate change and habitat loss, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to become extinct – particularly if the initiative discussed in the article is successful.
The excellent Snopes website which debunks and refutes all kinds of rubbish circulated online explains why the headline is pure sensationalism, designed to get you to click through to the article. You can read it here: https://www.snopes.com/chocolate-extinct-40-years/
Phew! Panic over. So what do I do with all that chocolate I horded? Oh well, I’d better eat it…
