Climate change threatens coffee supply

Wait, did I read that correctly?

Here is an article regarding Starbucks' concern over the threat of climate change to the worldwide supply of coffee. They consider it a "threat to a food item many people can't live without." I couldn't agree with them more! The only thing that may be worse would be a threat to chocolate (cocoa) production. Oh no! That's being threatened too! Scientists at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture are warning that it may become too hot to produce cocoa in Ghana and the Ivory Coast of Africa, where most of the world's supply of it comes from.

This climate change issue is getting personal. Retreating glaciers, polar bear extinction, rising shorelines. Ok. But reduction in coffee and cocoa production is something I think we can all agree is not insignificant.

Jim Hanna, the Starbucks' sustainability director, will travel to Washington on Friday to brief members of Congress on climate change and coffee at an event sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists. I suspect many of those at the briefing will have a cup of coffee on the table in front of them, too, because I can only imagine how much I would need coffee to keep me awake during a briefing from concerned scientists.

Go Starbucks! Don't let it happen!