By Mitchell Beer, Deputy Director
Well, whatever it takes to get people’s attention with proof that climate change is real, is right in front of us, and will touch every aspect of our everyday lives.
Forget the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy (if your geography gives you that luxury). Never mind record floods, droughts, and Arctic sea loss. With long, lazy holiday mornings on the horizon, just wait for the social media circuit to light up when people realize their children and grandchildren will some day be deprived of their morning joe!
This shocking news comes to us courtesy of a study by Britain’s Royal Botanic Gardens, working with colleagues in Ethiopia. “Rising temperatures due to climate change could mean wild Arabica coffee is extinct in 70 years, posing a risk to the genetic sustainability of one of the world’s basic commodities,” according to a recent news report by Planet Ark.
“Because coffee is a highly climate-dependent crop, the increase of a few degrees of average temperature in growing regions can put at risk the future of Arabica coffee and the livelihood of millions of people who grow and produce it.” By 2080, 38 to 99.7% of the areas suitable for wild Arabica cultivation could be lost.
Okay, people: Time for a radical shift in priorities. How can we put all our time into the complexities of low-carbon energy research when there are coffee plants to be saved? Or coffee to be consumed, before it’s too late?
I’m not really suggesting that we let up on the research and modeling at the heart of the Trottier Project mandate, but there’s something about a looming coffee crisis that has a way of focusing the mind. (At least until our most recent caffeine hit wears off.)
Everything about global climate change makes it a big, complex issue, but the motivation to deal with its ecosystem impacts derives largely from its impact on everyday lives.
Fossil fuel production is driven by the deeper demand for energy services—we flip a switch or turn an ignition key to get heat, light, mobility, or connectivity, not to buy a unit of fuel or electricity. Those services meet an even deeper demand for comfort, good health, security, and happiness.
And I don’t think it trivializes climate change or minimizes the challenges ahead to say that many millions of us would include a cup of our favourite hot, brown beverage on that list of deeper demands. That means this work will reach a wider audience, more quickly and meaningfully, with the word that something as basic as our coffee supply could be at risk.
We don’t dare let up on the coffee-fueled analysis that is leading the Trottier Project to a set of plausible scenarios for a low-carbon energy future. But when we try to tell a wider audience what we’re doing and why it matters so very much, world coffee supplies might not be a bad place to start.