First bacon, now Coffee to be extinct. Stock up on your java now!

[BigRedChief]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/st...a-extinct.html

A cup of morning coffee could be much harder to find, and much more expensive, before the century is out thanks to climate change and the possible extinction of wild Arabica beans.


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.

[Ace Gunner]

meh, mcd's will have it for $80 a cup.

[alnorth]

This report is ridiculous.

Presuming climate change happens, land which is currently unsuitable for these beans will suddenly become viable, and this crop is too valuable for the potential new growers to shrug their shoulders and say, "meh"

This bean wont be extinct unless the entire world becomes unsuitable, and since this is a warm weather crop, you'd need a new ice age for that, not global warming.

[redsurfer11]

F*** Coffee. Drink Tea.

[Jenson71]

Originally Posted by redsurfer11

F*** Coffee. Drink Tea.

Coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon. Thank God for the industrial revolution.

[gblowfish]

I'm going to be very grumpy in 2080. First of all, because I have to have my coffee in the morning. Second, because I'm going to be 121 years old and haven't had my coffee in the morning. It won't be a pretty sight.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by WhiteWhale

Sounds like some propaganda aimed at starbucks loving hippies.

Also, I'm glad most of you will be dead. I hope you don't have kids if that's the regard you have for them. Maybe your grandkids will want coffee?

No one on this board will take this report seriously. It was just a fun thing to post humorous antidotes. Ans maybe poop refrences.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by alnorth

This report is ridiculous.

Presuming climate change happens, land which is currently unsuitable for these beans will suddenly become viable, and this crop is too valuable for the potential new growers to shrug their shoulders and say, "meh"

This bean wont be extinct unless the entire world becomes unsuitable, and since this is a warm weather crop, you'd need a new ice age for that, not global warming.

As usual, the popular press completely misrepresented the study. The focus of the study was wild Arabica coffee, not cultivated coffee. The irreplacable value of the wild coffee us it's genetic diversity, which provides potential for developing new strains of coffee that have improved flavor or stress resistant properties. For example if climate change rests in conditions generally less favorable to cultivate coffee, that disadvantage may be partially overcome by breeding strains tolerant of those stress conitions. However, in order to breed new strains, we need to have those traits already present in existing plants. That genetic diversity is largely contained in the wild populations.

[Rain Man]

I'm very worried about toast now.

[KCFalcon59]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'm very worried about toast now.

Not to mention real butter and apricot preserves.