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Climate change could prove consequential to beer lovers
We’ve been less panicked than many when it comes to climate change issues. But a recent study may give us all reason to drink.
Here’s the deal…
A recent study points out that trouble may be brewing for the world’s beer drinkers and that according to their findings climate change could lead to “dramatic” price spikes and supply shortages.
Not good…..but that’s just the beginning.
By the end of this century, heat waves and droughts could occur every three years leading to barley destruction on a global scale and roughly a 16% drop in beer consumption compared to today.
You see, barley, the fourth largest grain crop globally, after heat, rice, and corn, is along with hops, yeast and water, one of beer’s most important components. And although it is primarily grown to feed livestock, beer accounts for about 17% of worldwide barley production.
Is barley destined to be baked?
In a future where global warming will according to this study, raise atmospheric temperatures over land about 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius), barley supply could potentially drop as much as 15% by the end of the century.
And it’s not like we’ll have to wait till the end of the century to see barley endangered. Just this summer Europe suffered from high temperatures and a consequential drought that impacted its grain crops so the global warming’s sway may have begun to be felt.
According to the Guardian, the research, published in the journal Nature Plants, “used climate models to examine the impact of extreme weather on barley yields over the next 80 years. The team then used economic models to estimate the impact on beer supply and price in different nations.”
And if carbon emissions are not controlled, the study found that prices would rise causing beer consumption to fall by about a third in Ireland, Belgium and the Czech Republic.
And neither the United States nor UK will escape global warmings impact on beer prices either…
In the United Kingdom 25% fewer pints would be consumed, with 14% fewer bottles being opened in the US.
Banner image credit: Shock Top
