Climate Change Could Drive Coffee To Extinction By 2080 345
Hugh Pickens writes "Coffee is the world's favorite beverage and the second-most traded commodity after oil. Now Nick Collins reports that rising global temperatures and subtle changes in seasonal conditions could make 99.7 per cent of Arabica-growing areas unsuitable for the plant before the end of the century and in some areas as soon as 2020. Even if the beans do not disappear completely from the wild, climate change is highly likely to impact yields. The taste of coffee, a beverage of choice among Slashdot readers, will change in future decades. 'The worst case scenario, as drawn from our analyses, is that wild Arabica could be extinct by 2080,' says Justin Moat. 'This should alert decision makers to the fragility of the species.'" Read more, below.
Hugh Pickens continues: "Arabica is one of only two species of bean used to make coffee and is by far the most popular, accounting for 70 per cent of the global market, including almost all fresh coffee sold in high street chains and supermarkets in the US and most of Europe. A different bean known as Robusta is used in freeze-dried coffee and is commonly drunk in Greece and Turkey, but Robusta's high caffeine content makes it much less pleasant to most palates. In some areas, such as the Boma Plateau in South Sudan, the demise could come as early as 2020, based on the low flowering rate and poor health of current crops. The researchers used field study and 'museum' data (including herbarium specimens) to run bioclimatic models for wild Arabica coffee, in order to deduce the actual (recorded) and predicted geographical distribution for the species. 'Arabica can only exist in a very specific pace with a very specific number of other variables,' says Aaron Davis, head of coffee research at the Royal Botanic Gardens. 'It is mainly temperature but also the relationship between temperature and seasonality – the average temperature during the wet season for example.'"
Finally plausible (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why coffee? Why not beer? (Score:4, Funny)
Call me when Diet Coke is endangered (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why coffee? Why not beer? (Score:4, Funny)
That's why you post as Anonymous Coward, whereas he is whoring for karma with a first post about beer.
// posted while having a coffee break from sanitising bottles for my homebrewed beer.
Re:We'll run out of oil by the year 2000. (Score:4, Funny)
This is a total non-story.
No coffee? Brawndo! (Score:4, Funny)
But we know what plants crave. Brawndo. It's got electrolytes.'
'...Okay - what are electrolytes? Do you know?'
'Yeah. It's what they use to make Brawndo.'
'But why do they use them in Bawndo? What do they do?'
'They're part of what plants crave.'
'But why do plants crave them?'
'Because plants crave Brawndo, and Brawndo has electrolytes.'
Re:Unlikely (Score:5, Funny)
(And polar bears are not as useful to man as coffee)
Actually they have a very important use. They eat the people who count polar bears and tell us their population is declining.
Re:Why coffee? Why not beer? (Score:5, Funny)
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy, Coffee is proof he wants us to be productive and have enough money to buy more beer.
Re:Not Really: New Areas? (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, this is an alarmist article. You're supposed to be scared, not use rational thought.
What are you, Canadian?
Re:Not Really: New Areas? (Score:5, Funny)
What are you, Canadian?
The most fun people to talk to about global warming are Russians. It's hilarious. First they (in general) impassionately deny that it's happening, that it's a conspiracy, etc. As you rationally show the scientific evidence, they get more and more animated and excited about the topic, to the point where they say, "I don't care if global warming is happening, I want a warmer Russia!!"
Living in the frigid north does things to you.