Featured image credit: PA
Coffee is the single most important beverage in the world, even more important that alcohol - hear me out.
It's not just the substance that prepares you for your day, or indeed gets you through your working day. No, it's social, comforting, casual and immediately effective.
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Alcohol on the other hand is a deceiving son of a bitch. It may feel like it's cheering you up but, as a depressive, it won't always be your friend. However, I will make an exception with espresso martinis - they're the one!
'Let's talk about it over coffee' is a reassuring statement that lets you know that everything will be okay after a flat white - other choices are also available.
According to Business Insider, around the world we drink 2.25 billion cups of coffee every day.
But news that a global supply of coffee is at risk, with shortages already starting to affect the world, could change all of that.
Sorry coffee addicts lovers. Like you, I am saddened by the news.
A new report from The Climate Institute of Australia predicts that half of the world's area that's deemed suitable for growing coffee will be lost if climate change remains unmonitored.
By 2080, the report suggests that wild coffee could go extinct.
Why? Global warming, of course. It is causing extreme weather, such as heavy rain mixed with severe droughts. Therefore, the fertility of the land is affected, thus making it more of a struggle to grow coffee in many areas in which it is grown today.
Extreme temperature and heavy rain have helped a fungus called Coffee Leaf Rust already spread through Central America and into South America, destroying crops.
"We have a cloud hovering over our head. It's dramatically serious," Mario Cerutti, Green Coffee and Corporate Relations Partner at Lavazza, said at a hospitality conference in Italy in 2015. "Climate change can have a significant adverse effect in the short term. It's no longer about the future; it's the present."
It's not all doom and gloom just yet, though. It is believed that cutting emissions and limiting warming to 1.5 degrees would make a significant difference for both us coffee lovers and the 120 million people reportedly making a living from the high demand globally.
I walk to work. I've done my bit.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Global Warming, Coffee