Extinction Level Event

No Biggie: Global Climate Change Might Destroy World’s Coffee Supply

Free refills?
Free refills?

A study released last week suggests that intensifying climate change will render 99.7 percent of Arabica-growing areas untenable for coffee bean production by 2080. If you’re all like “it’s not my problem” and you are currently on line for a big boy macchiato, consider that Arabica beans comprise 70 percent of the world’s coffee supply and that some growing areas will be affected as early as 2020. “The worst case scenario,” one of the study’s authors writes, “is that wild Arabica could be extinct by 2080. This should alert decision makers to the fragility of the species.”

While researchers indicate that coffee production may be sustained with interventions of cooling equipment and the introduction of new irrigation techniques, there’s no way to account for other factors like exponential deforestation and the total decrease in the amount of seed-spreading birds. At the very least, they warn, there will be coffee shortages, and even if the coffee plantation industry finds a way to continue, your morning cup will not taste the same.


Coffee threatened by climate change
[Telegraph]

No Biggie: Global Climate Change Might Destroy World’s Coffee Supply