Climate change is complicating coffee | Teen | santafenewmexican ... - Santa Fe New Mexican
Climate change is complicating coffee | Teen | santafenewmexican.com
Workers harvest coffee plants in the area of Tizamarte, Guatemala, in 2020. A picker makes about $8 per sack harvested and can usually fill one or two per day. USAID reported 60% of coffee consumed in the U.S. comes from small producers with fewer than 12 acres of land in developing countries.
Whether it’s hot or iced, a latte or just black, it is estimated that as of 2023 close to three-quarters of the American population drink coffee daily, according to a poll by Statista. This same poll also suggests coffee is the second most popular drink in the country, falling behind only bottled water. What’s left to speculation, however, are the number of coffee consumers prepared for the potentially catastrophic effects climate change could have on the industry supplying their daily boost of caffeine.
The past eight years were the warmest on record, according to NASA, and temperatures are only expected to rise in coming years. What that means for temperamental coffee plants, and the millions of people who rely on the success of coffee crops, is not good. Sporadic rain and long droughts are already bringing tragedy to farmers and their families, and yet the consumer on the other end of the bean hasn’t, and possibly won’t, feel the effects of these losses.
Currently, the dangers associated with climate change to coffee crops are many. A warming climate invites pests and diseases to crops, and moves regions outside the temperature range suitable for growing coffee plants. In addition, decreased precipitation in association with changing weather patterns is proving to be lethal to coffee plants in countries such as Uganda.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.