Comments on: A Valentine’s Day Without Chocolate?

By: Amazing Animal Hearts : Wildlife Promise

Amazing Animal Hearts : Wildlife Promise — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 16:37:27 +0000

[...] Day, rather than look at animals’ weird mating rituals or focus on the possibility of a worldwide chocolate shortage, we’re going to stroll down memory lane to examine some amazing facts about animal [...]

By: Suzanne OGawa

Suzanne OGawa — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:52:00 +0000

The chocolate sustainability issue is even more disheartening with the recent comprehensive research coming out on chocolate’s health benefits. I wrote about the sustainability issues of chocolate as well as chocolates cardiovascular health benefits in a blog post today at Mind the Science Gap. Check it out if you are interested, http://www.mindthesciencegap.org/2012/02/13/from-tree-to-heart-the-sustainability-and-health-benefits-of-chocolate/

By: gail zawacki

gail zawacki — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:52:00 +0000

The cocoa tree is also no doubt fussy about the quality of the air and soild in which it is growing. Unfortunately, world-wide, invisibible air pollution is killing trees of all species.At the top of page 4 in this report is a graph indicating the inexorable rise of constant, background tropospheric ozone:http://www.acap.asia/ozone/Ozone.pdfIt's from Japan, I chose it at random. There are endless versions from any number of government agencies and academia.It’s also well established the ozone is toxic to annual crops, such as in this new research published in January from Princetonhttp://www.biogeosciences.net/9/271/2012/bg-9-271-2012.pdfwhich investigates the global reductions in annual crop yield and quality from transboundary ozone pollution.It seems worthy of consideration that since ozone is toxic to vegetation, and the rising constant background concentrations are responsible for diminishing annual crops by significant amounts, that wild perennial plants and trees both indigenous and cultivated will sustain cumulative damage by absorbing it season after season. This explanation offers far more than mere correlation. It explains causation, specifically, two proven facts from repeated controlled fumigation experiments:1. plants and trees with compromised immunity from exposure to ozone are more susceptible to attacks from insects, disease and fungus; and2. plants and trees injured by exposure to ozone allocate less energy to their roots, making them more vulnerable to drought and wind.Also pertinent is the now-documented fact that, indeed, forests are in decline everywhere on earth.See: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/science/earth/01forest.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&_r=1More information and links to research: http://www.deadtrees-dyingforests.com/

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:57:00 +0000

Cocoapocalypse! Awesome. But also terribly frightening. No fondue, no bananas to dip in fondue…what is this world coming to?