Climate change is coming for some of our favorite vices
Chocolate, coffee and wine won’t survive climate change, study predicts
- Key growing regions for wine, coffee, and chocolate in western Europe, South America, and West Africa are increasingly threatened by human-caused climate change.
- A new study suggests that Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), a proposed method to cool Earth by pumping gas into the sky, will not be sufficient to save these luxury crops.
- Modelling SAI over these regions between 2036 and 2045 revealed it failed to consistently preserve the necessary growing conditions, with only six of 18 analysed regions showing reliable improvement.
- The method's ineffectiveness is partly due to its inability to reliably manage precipitation, as extreme rainfall, flooding, and humidity also severely impact these crops.
- Researchers recommend local adaptation strategies, investment in resilient agricultural practices, and global cooperation as essential to protect these crops and the communities dependent on them.