The Economist writes about how a warming climate may impact coffee.
- The world drinks two billion cups of coffee per day and coffee growing regions will likely be hit hard by extreme heat.
- Scientists are looking for solutions to save caffeine which include moving coffee plants to higher elevations or forests, where they used to grow before the 20th century.
- Rediscoveries of beans C. stenophylla and Coffea dewevrei which are more resistant to heat and invasive species may also help keep people caffeinated in a warming world.
“Temperatures are rising and rainfall patterns shifting across South America, central Africa and South-East Asia, where most of the world’s coffee is grown. By the end of the century between 35% and 75% of the coffee-growing land in Brazil, the world’s biggest producer, could be unusable, according to a recent paper published in Science of the Total Environment by Cássia Gabriele Dias, an agricultural engineer at the Federal University of Itajubá, in Brazil.”
Read the full article here.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
