We may soon be facing a coffee shortage thanks to climate change
A scary thought.
If you don’t already have enough reasons to protest for climate change action, here’s another.
A recent study by Nature Plants has found that climate change could make it increasingly challenging to grow coffee beans in Ethiopia.
According to the study, Ethiopia’s climate is set to get warmer and drier and could cause 40-60 per cent of the country to become an inhospitable environment for the Arabica tree. This is especially sad news because around 60 per cent of the world’s coffee comes from the Arabica tree, with a large portion of that grown in Ethiopia.
An estimated 15 million people are currently employed in Ethiopia’s coffee farming trade and coffee makes up a quarter of the country’s export revenue.
While rising temperatures will see current Arabica-growing locations become unsuitable for farming, the study says the country’s higher ground could become an ideal environment.
This solution, however, would see millions of farmers needing to buy up new land at higher elevations and move their crops. It’s not very realistic or ideal.
So if you want to help save your morning dose, it will pay to try and reduce your own carbon footprint and push the government to take further climate change action.
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