• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance June 29, 2022
Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ for Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use June 26, 2022
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Climate News Network

Coffee producers feel the heat

September 29, 2017
Reading time: 4 minutes
Primary Author: Tim Radford

Rising temperatures could be bad news for coffee-growing. Image: The Coffee Trust via Flickr

Rising temperatures could be bad news for coffee-growing. Image: The Coffee Trust via Flickr

 

Global warming threatens to substantially reduce the amount of land suitable for coffee-growing by 2050, but bees could fly to the rescue.

LONDON, 29 September, 2017 – The news is quite enough to send any addict reaching for a double espresso: global warming could be about to reduce the area suitable for coffee-growing in Latin America by up to 88%.

The world’s favourite drink is produced by plants that are adapted to a precise range of conditions – and a world of rising global average temperatures could leave harvests in decline and established growers impoverished by mid-century, according to a new study.

Researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA that they used ecological models to estimate future changes in the distribution of arabica coffee plants and 39 species of coffee-pollinating bee in the world’s largest coffee-growing region. And if humans go on burning fossil fuels at the present profligate way, the areas suitable for growing coffee could drop somewhere between 73% and 88% by 2050.

Positive pollination

But the same study produced its own sweetener to ease the sting: bees may help reduce the losses. Although the same models show that the diversity of bees in areas suitable for growing coffee may be reduced by between 8% and 18%, at least 10 species of bee would be present to pollinate the flowers and set the berries in between 46% and 59% of the lands that will be suitable for coffee crops.

The message of such studies is: don’t think about the plant, think about the ecological niche.

“For my money, we do a far superior job of predicting the future when we consider both plants and animals, or in this case the bees, and their biology,” says David Roubik, senior staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, in Panama City, one of the co-authors. “Traditional models don’t build in the ability of organisms to change. They’re based on the world as we know it now, not on the way it could be as people and other organisms adapt.”

“This is the first study to show how both coffee
and bees will likely change under global warming
– in ways that will hit coffee producers hard”

And Taylor Ricketts, director of the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Environment, and a co-author, says: “Coffee is one of the most valuable commodities on earth, and needs a suitable climate and pollinating bees to produce well. This is the first study to show how both will likely change under global warming – in ways that will hit coffee producers hard.”

The study suggests that although the picture is of overall decline, some mountain areas of Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and Costa Rica could become more suitable for coffee as the global temperature rises. But it is a valuable crop and the main income for 100 million people, many of them poorer farmers and growers in the developing world. Only a few months ago researchers warned that climate change could put Ethiopia’s harvests at risk and last year scientists warned that extreme weather conditions and high temperatures could threaten 50% of Brazil’s crop.

Natural ecosystems

However, the researchers stress, the pollinators can help. Bees have a positive effect on coffee yield, on the fruit that is set and on the weight of the berries, and native bee species are often more effective pollinators than invader or introduced bee species. So the study offers a practical incentive to preserve species diversity and conserve natural ecosystems: that way nature delivers the breadwinning coffee bean and the honey as well.

“If there are bees in the coffee plots, they are very efficient and very good at pollinating, so productivity increases and also berry weight,” says Pablo Imbach, who led the research from the Centre for Tropical Agriculture, in Hanoi, Vietnam. “In the areas projected to lose coffee suitability, we wanted to know whether that loss could be offset by bees.” – Climate News Network



in Climate News Network

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

stux / Pixabay
Air & Marine

Big Seven European Airlines Lag on Reducing Sky-High Emissions: Report

June 13, 2022
76
Ars Electronica/flickr
Solar

Unique ‘Smartflower’ Microgrid to Power Saskatchewan High School

June 13, 2022
155
http://midwestenergynews.com/2013/10/24/as-pipeline-concerns-mount-a-renewed-focus-on-the-great-lakes-enbridge-mackinac-line-5/
Pipelines / Rail Transport

Line 5 Closure Brings Negligible Rise in Gas Prices, Enbridge Consultant Finds

June 10, 2022
206

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Geocryologist/wikimedia commons

Lack of Consent Drives Indigenous Opposition to Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mining Plan

May 17, 2022
460
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

June 29, 2022
243
AJEL / Pixabay

Windfall Tax on Food, Fossil, Pharma Giants Would Raise $490B to Solve ‘Catastrophic’ Food Crisis: Oxfam

June 29, 2022
65
Province of B.C./flickr

Comox Joins Municipalities Seeking Ban on New Gas Stations

June 29, 2022
89
London Eye UK England

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
149
Keith Hirsche

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
430

Recent Posts

Number 10/flickr

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
155
futureatlas.com/flickr

Ottawa Demands Deeper Fuel Emissions Cuts, Offers Fossils a Double-Dip on Tax Breaks

June 29, 2022
80
Danielle Scott/flickr

Advocate Urges Ottawa to Intervene Before Ontario Builds Highway 413

June 29, 2022
138
/Piqsels

Refocus Agriculture Spending to Cut Emissions, Boost Productivity, OECD Urges Governments

July 2, 2022
34
Jimmy Emerson, DVM/flickr

Public Vigilance Key to Protecting Greenbelts for Climate Resilience, Report Finds

June 29, 2022
41
Miguel V/Wikimedia Commons

Forests Fall Short of Full Carbon Storage Potential, Study Finds

June 29, 2022
73
Next Post

Dr. Who Star Backs UK's Offshore Wind

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}