Coffee Beans In Danger of Extinction

[Gahars]

If you're like most people, you probably start your day with a nice cup of joe (perhaps while reading the morning paper and enjoying a puff or on two on a pipe).

Well, it looks like that could all change. If climate change continues, coffee beans may just become a thing of the past.

That’s the warning behind a new study by U.K. and Ethiopian researchers who say the beans that go into 70 per cent of the world’s coffee could be wiped out by 2080.

Researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew and the Environment and Coffee Forest Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia looked at how climate change might make some land unsuitable for Arabica plants, which are highly vulnerable to temperature change and other dangers including pests and disease.

They came up with a best-case scenario that predicts a 38 per cent reduction in land capable of yielding Arabica by 2080. The worst-case scenario puts the loss at between 90 per cent and 100 per cent.

There is a “high risk of extinction” says the study, which was published this week in the academic journal Plos One.

CBC News

According to one scientist/coffee addict, "We clearly have a lotto problems here." Please note that no one in the history of human civilization has ever spoken these words.

A loss like this would be quite devastating. Not only have people come to rely upon coffee for an early morning (or late night) boost, but entire economies are built around the coffee trade. Once mighty franchises may buckle, and poorer nations like Ethiopia might lose what little income they had from such a calamity.

Rising sea water and global temperatures evidently aren't enough to motivate massive reform. Maybe disappearing coffee will (star)buck the trend.

TL;DR:

Spoiler

 

[Bladexdsl]

2080 by that time we'll be able to make synthetic coffee beans

 

[tenkai_2.0]

ack noooo not my cappuccinos!

 

[Flame]

its a conspiracy by Redbull...

 

[Frank Cadena]

inb4 the 'We'll adapt' statements. I for one drink a cup a day and I become short tempered without a cup in the morning. That and a book to read before I go to bed.

 

[FAST6191]

If it comes to pass I hold nothing of value will have been lost (livelihoods of coffee bean growers aside).

That said I did find the following amusing

 

[Qtis]

I for one drink a cup a day and I become short tempered without a cup in the morning.

That could help if you didn't drink coffee for a while. Your body gets used to it

On a more serious note, this affects pretty much all species. It's visible in the sense that more and more "tropical" plants are found more north than ever before. Hopefully something can be done before this happens though :3

 

[Eerpow]

I have no idea why so many people drink coffee, I never could get into that stuff, it's horrible no matter how you prepare it...
Sure I'm only 19 but to be honest I doubt I'll ever like it.

While 2080 is the year they predict the beans to disappear it's very likely we'll see some of the consequences of the higher coffee prices within only a couple of years from now if the coffee production continues to decrease at the same rate. Coffee being such a valuable import and export product worldwide have a huge economical impact on the the countries producing it.

 

[p1ngpong]

Just one of many scaremongering climate change stories I have noticed in the news this week.

 

[Frank Cadena]

It's less about the coffee and more about the routine sadly. I hate it if it gets broken. It's a cup in the morning and a book before bed. Anything else can change just not those 2.

On topic; I want to see a fight between Starbucks and Big Oil. Big Oil is kinda rooting for the ice caps to melt. Why? Because supposedly there's large oil reserves under there that can only be accessed if the ice melts. Then with the money they make they'll make large floating cities and charge people to live in them.

 

[Taleweaver]

So THAT's why everyone's nipping tea in Babylon 5? They forecasted the extinction of the coffee bean!


@Frank Cadena: yeah...I'd guess that paying oil companies to live on their floating city is going to be quite a break in a daily routine.

 

[Fear Zoa]

I'll be dead by 2080, my kids kids can deal with that shit.
I don't even like coffee anyway, I'm more of a soda and tea person.

 

[frogboy]

Good thing I never got into coffee.

 

[zygie]

I've seen the article before. I love coffee for the sake of coffee, not because of habit or a quick caffeine fix, so I'll be sad if or when coffee becomes a rare commodity. I even have a bean-to-cup coffee machine, for lack of a better name, just to get the best out of every cup.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I don't like the taste of coffee, I only drink it when I'm tired. Even if coffee beans are extincted there will still be guarana, so nothing to worry about for those that drink it for the effects, not the taste.

 

[DaggerV]

It's a setup to drive up price, don't you people get it!


First the cannucks's massive supply of maple syrup just so happens to disappear, and now, coffee beans are going extinct!


It's a war on breakfast! WAKE UP HEATHENS! Micky D doesn't want you to start being healthy!












/endtrollface

 

[The Catboy]

But I need my coffee, without my coffee I am a bitch in the morning and the rest of the day.

In all seriousness, we need to do something this.

 

[Bladexdsl]

upon seeing this starbucks increase their prices by 50%

 

[omgpwn666]

I don't care. If I play my cards right and try to drink coffee everyday before 2080 I should be dead by 2050.

 

[Engert]

I'll be dead by 2080, my kids kids can deal with that shit.
I don't even like coffee anyway, I'm more of a soda and tea person.

Shame on you. Is this the legacy you want to leave to your children? Here you go son, I leave you minus ten million in debt? Have a great day? Do the right thing and give up your son to Angelina Jolie.