At a Glance

Human-caused climate change and changingweather patterns threatentwo staples of Valentine's Day — chocolate and champagne.If global temperatures continue to rise as expected, champagne crops will see a dramatic decrease in production by mid-century. Global warming is expected to cause severe damage to cocoa plants in areas like West Africa.

There's some bad news on the horizon for Valentine's Day: Scientists say global warming and changingweather patterns are expected to significantly impact two staples of the holiday, chocolate and champagne.

For those who may be unaware, champagne comes from the Champagne region in northeastern France. Only sparkling wines that hail from this region are permitted to be called champagne. It's the same for wines like Bordeaux that come from, well, Bordeaux, or Beaujolais, which comes from ... well, you can probably guess.

Rising temperatures have actually resulted in higher quality champagne in recent years but should global temperatures continue to rise as expected, champagne .

This may force champagne producers to move further north, which means the sparkling wine will no longer be called champagne and might instead be called Seine-Maritime or Pas-de-Calais, after the French regions located at the northernmost tip of France. Unfortunately, neitherSeine-Maritime nor Pas-de-Calais rolls off the tongue in quite the same way as champagne.

Not only the name would change, but the flavor of champagne might be altered since wines tend to pick up nutrients found in the soil native to where the wine is produced. This creates subtle differences in the flavor of the wine.

(MORE:)

Perhaps even more calamitous for Valentine's Day is how climate change is expected to impact cocoa plantsfrom which chocolate is produced.

The cocoa plant is very finicky and will only thrive in areas20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the equator. Add to the fact that it needs at least800 inches of rain annually, along with a dry season limited tono longer than three months, and it's easy to see that global warming may have disastrous effects on chocolate production.

In West Africa, where 70 percent of the world's cocoa is produced, projected drought conditions from global warming and an may cause significant damage to cacao trees. According to a study published in 2016,West Africa may lose up tofor cacao trees by 2050.

Only time will tell just how badly global warming will impact these crops. In the meantime, you may want to stock up for your Valentine.