Chocolate - a short history

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Chocolate, a vice for some, a special treat for others. Described by Swedish botanist, Carolus Linnaeus as the "food of the Gods" (Linneaus gave the cacao tree its  formal botanical name 'Theobroma Cacao'), chocolate has travelled across the world in many forms since the 16th Century. A short history is summarised -

• In 1502 Columbus returned to Spain from the Americas with the cocoa bean. Unfortunately Ferdinand of Spain was unimpressed (and Columbus had been something of a nuisance to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain in any case so there was even less interest)

• Years later in 1517 Conquistador Hernan Cortes and his expedition come into contact with the cocoa bean with the Aztecs and their Emperor, Montezuma. Cortes establishes cocoa bean crops in Spanish territories in Africa and the West Indies with the bean arriving in Austria and Italy.

• Anne of Austria and Louis XIII of France are married in 1615 and Anne brings her love of chocolate to France.

• Chocolate drinking is promoted  in London through public advertisements in 1657 with special Chocolate Houses becoming preferred places instead of the then popular Tea Houses. Chocolate continues to gain popularity throughout Europe.

• In England, Dr Joseph Fry establishes the first large-scale manufacturing enterprise using steam engines that grind beans in 1795. The Industrial Revolution enables larger production volumes to be achieved.   

• C J Van Houten in Amsterdam in 1828 discovers how to extract cocoa butter from the cocoa bean producing a smooth dry powder. He also invents a machine which chemically adjusts the natural acid of the bean through alkalines.

• The 1870s see Daniel Peter of Nestle creating milk chocolate bu adding condensed milk into the production process. Randolph Lindt develops a process of heating chocolate dough and then using rolling through the chocolate creating a liquid form still in use today.

Chocolate has been with us for over 500 years with a world-wide following crossing borders and cultures.

Sydney's temperatures and increased heat from climate change

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Extreme weather events have focussed attention on the effect of temperature in large urban centres. None more so than for cities that have large built-up precincts and are subject to urban overheating.

Urban overheating can be caused by multiple factors including building materials (which absorb rather than diffuse solar radiation), human activity and air pollution, dense closed-in areas with little vegetation and few open areas to name a few.  

Research from the University of NSW has found that the mean daily maximum temperature was between 8 and 10.5 degrees Celsius hotter in Western Sydney than the Central Business District (CBD) of the city. Western Sydney was measured as being 20 to 50 kilometres inland.

For the inner suburbs of Sydney, located 8 to 12 kilometres inland from the CBD, the temperature variation was 5 to 6.5 degrees Celsius.  

One reason that has been proposed for this significant heat variation is the proximity of the Sydney CBD to the ocean with coastal breezes cooling the  inner city but unable to penetrate further inland.

Global warming - the other Greenhouse gases

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Most of the public discussion and policy focus is rightly concentrated on carbon dioxide emissions however sight should not be lost on the other Greenhouse Gases (GHG) that are also being emitted in smaller quantities and which do pack a sizeable environmental punch.