Year 3, Month 2, Day 16: Just Put Your Lips Together And Blow

The LA Times runs a report on climate change’s impact on the Valentine’s Day celebrations of the future:

Let’s face it, climate change is incredibly un-sexy. We don’t care how many nude protesters are involved. But it’s about to get worse. A new mini-report from the environmental group Climate Nexus points out that climate change is poised to wreck Valentine’s Day, or at least change it significantly, by threatening chocolate production.

That’s right. Global warming is very bad for chocolate.

As reported by The Times, research from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture found last year that as temperatures rise, the principal growing regions for cocoa could shrink, especially in Ghana and Ivory Coast, the sources of half the world’s supply. Production could fall off dramatically by 2050, making cocoa less available and more expensive.

Play it, Sam. Sent February 11:

While global warming’s impact on chocolate production is certainly going to make a difference in the way we observe Valentine’s Day in the coming decades, we don’t need candy for romance — after all, “moonlight and love songs are never out of date.”

But another love story’s coming to an end. Our culture’s century-long infatuation with consumption cannot survive the economic and infrastructural transformations coming in the wake of worldwide climatic disruption. Since the early twentieth century we have come to believe that if we purchase the right goods and services, our frustrations will be relieved, our suffering mitigated, our status enhanced. But as our civilization grows up, we must learn to make choices that are in the best interests of our descendants. When confronting the reality of a slow-motion planetary catastrophe, consumerism turns out to be fickle, inconsiderate, and wasteful — hardly the right material for a long-term relationship.

Warren Senders