Yeah, sure. Polar bears and orangutans are likely going to become extinct in the wild in your lifetime. But that serves them right for not living in a climate-controlled penthouse.
However, when they tell me that I might have to pay a dollar a day more for my foo foo coffee beverage in the morning, then I start to take notice.
Heat Damages Colombia Coffee, Raising Prices
The shortage of high-end Arabica coffee beans is also being felt in New York supermarkets and Paris cafes, as customers blink at escalating prices. Purveyors fear that the Arabica coffee supply from Colombia may never rebound — that the world might, in effect, hit “peak coffee.”
Rising oil prices can be drowned out with shrill chants of Drill, baby, drill! But WTF are you going to do when crops simply will not grow any longer?
But in the last few years, coffee yields have plummeted here and in many of Latin America’s other premier coffee regions as a result of rising temperatures and more intense and unpredictable rains, phenomena that many scientists link partly to global warming.
Coffee plants require the right mix of temperature, rainfall and spells of dryness for beans to ripen properly and maintain their taste. Coffee pests thrive in the warmer, wetter weather.
Leave it to the trad med to water it down by saying linked "partly to global warming". Which part is linked, exactly? Oh, roughly 99% of the part. But that is still merely "a part."
Average temperatures in Colombia’s coffee regions have risen nearly one degree in 30 years, and in some mountain areas the increase has been double that...
Sorry, NY Times, but a 2-degree temp rise in 30 years is a STAGGERING change in climate. And it is not like coffee is the only crop that requires "the right mix of temperature, rainfall and spells of dryness." Last time I checked, the only plants which do not fall into that category were called "weeds".
Granted, the coffee crisis is yet another of myriad metaphorical coal mine canaries. The much bigger issue is mankind's ability to grow food. I have noticed that eating is important for sustaining life. I also suspect that most of us are not so well suited for returning to a hunter-gatherer routine; it would interfere with our favorite TV shows.
It is the rich elite of this world who must snap out of it, and quick, if there is any hope for the polar bears and orangutans, and ultimately, mankind. Maybe having to pay $5 for the non-fat mocha latte will be the kick in the ass they need to stop acting as if climate change is no big deal.