Cacao, the plant that gives us chocolate, could go extinct as early as the year 2050 thanks to warmer temperatures and dryer weather conditions caused by man-made global warming.

The problem (other than humans dumping endless supplies of carbon into the atmosphere) is the finicky nature of the cacao plant.  It generally only grows in a narrow strip of rainforest roughly 20 degrees north and south of the equator.  Most of the world's chocolate comes from just two countries in West Africa - Ivory Coast and Ghana, where the temperature, rain, and humidity all stay relatively constant throughout the year.   But that's changing as the world heats up.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that rising temperatures will mean that the ideal growing conditions for the cacao will be roughly 300 meters up hill from the current, in land that is currently preserved for wildlife.

The Mars company, which produces such goodies as M&Ms, Snickers, and its namesake candy bar, is working on a two-prong approach.  It's spending a billion dollars on reducing the carbon footprint of its business and supply chain by more than 60 percent by 2050.  But that's not going to be enough.  It's also working with plant geneticists at the University of California at Berkeley to develop a cacao plant that can withstand higher temperatures and dryer conditions without wilting and rotting so that the current plantations don't have to move uphill.