Close-up of a ripe cocoa pod hanging from a tree branch in an African farm setting.
A searing heatwave that struck west Africa in February was made 4C hotter and 10 times more likely by human-caused global heating, a study has found. The heat affected millions of people but the number of early deaths or cases of illness are unknown, due to a lack of reporting. The region is the world’s largest exporter of cocoa, and farmers said the heat weakened their trees, which were already damaged from extreme rainfall in December. Prices for cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate, have soared in recent years due to climate-related damage to the crops, and the latest heatwave adds further pressure. The study, by the World Weather Attribution group of scientists, found that the heatwave would have happened less than once a century in a world without climate change. The region studied was in southern west Africa, where the heat was most extreme, including Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN