If changing temperatures and rainfall patterns kill off coffee, will that finally spur us into action?
THE introduction of coffee into Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries has been proposed as an important contributory factor to the rush of creativity and energy that spawned the scientific and industrial revolutions. How ironic, then, that the world's second favourite liquid after oil is under threat from climate change caused by industrial pollution.
The coffee plant is inordinately fussy about its growing conditions. It needs a "goldilocks" combination of temperature and rainfall to produce the high quality beans that most of us take for granted.
Unfortunately, these conditions are set to vanish from the places where coffee is traditionally grown as the climate changes (see "
That seems a long way off, but the effects may already be upon us: coffee yields are at a 35-year low. And the direct effects of climate are being exacerbated by the spread of pests that thrive in warmer conditions.
The demise of coffee is, of course, a minor inconvenience compared with some of the projected effects of dangerous climate change. It is not a staple crop; nobody will starve for lack of it, though 26 million farmers who depend on it for their livelihoods face a precarious future.
But coffee still has the potential to send a powerful message to the world about the reality of what we are doing to the climate. If you wanted to find a commodity whose escalating scarcity and price would cause maximum discomfort to complacent westerners, coffee is about as good as it gets.
Coffee is the world's most popular beverage, with about 500 billion cups drunk every year, fuelling an export industry worth $15 billion. It is also the number one source of caffeine, the world's favourite recreational drug. Billions of people all over the world - and especially in Europe and North America - are hooked on it and would find the prospect of its soaring cost or eventual disappearance very irritating.
It really is time to wake up and smell the coffee.
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The jolt we need to take on climate change
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The jolt we need to take on climate change
