Another Cult of Climastrology talking point found to be wrong? The hell you say!
(UK Telegraph) Fears that climate change is triggering a coffee killing fungus which could wipe out plantations are unfounded, a new study suggests.
Last month a report by The Climate Institute warned that an increase in wet and warm conditions was driving the spread of coffee leaf rust which attacks crops, causing plants to wither and stop producing beans.
The experts warned that by 2080, coffee could become extinct if temperatures continue to rise.
Then that pesky thing known as “Science” got involved, along with Reality
But a new study by the University of Exeter suggests that plantations are suffering due to a much more prosaic reason. Lack of funds.
They studied coffee plantations in Columbia where production fell by about 40 per cent between 2008 and 2011 because of severe outbreak of coffee rust
However Dr Dan Bebber, lead author, said that the crisis had been driven by the ‘perfect storm’ of weather coupled with a decrease in fertiliser use due to price rises during the 2008 financial crisis.
“Farmers weren’t treating coffee bushes as they normally would, and this was probably one of the factors that led to the rise in coffee leaf rust,” said Dr Bebber.
They found that during a time with similar weather conditions, there were no problems, because the plants were treated like normal.
The team found there was ‘no evidence’ to link the outbreak of coffee leaf rust with climate change.
The paper, published in the Royal Society Journal Philosophical Transactions B, concluded: “We find no evidence for an overall trend in disease risk in coffee-growing regions of Colombia from 1990 to 2015, therefore, while weather conditions were more conducive to disease outbreaks from 2008 to 2011, we reject the climate change hypothesis.”
I hope the people involved in the study are ready to be insulted, demeaned, and even threatened by members of the Cult of Climastrology.
I wonder how much work has been done to develop rust-resistant coffee cultivars. My father was a geneticist who developed rust-resistant strains of crops in the eastern U.S. that turned around declining markets.
Deniers! Nothing but filthy, rotten deniers. Probably Trump supporters, low intelligence and deplorable too.
The University of Exeter is a strong supporter of AGW/Climate Change
An excerpt from their webpage
“Climate change and sustainability are likely to be the most significant environmental phenomena of the 21st century and, working closely with the Met Office, we are positioned at the forefront of climate change research.
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/inspiring/keythemes/science/climate/
Thank you for mentioning them on your blog.
Do you mean that:
“We find no evidence for an overall trend in disease risk in coffee-growing regions of Colombia from 1990 to 2015, therefore, while weather conditions were more conducive to disease outbreaks from 2008 to 2011, we reject the climate change hypothesis.â€
Does not mean they strongly reject the climate change hypothesis? What exactly does “we reject the climate change hypothesis” mean then? Is that another way of saying “The University of Exeter is a strong supporter of AGW/Climate Change”?
I figured a college would be a “supporter” of AGW/Climate Change since they receive millions to do so. They would be a strong supporter of eating dog feces if there was a million dollar research market for it.
Perhaps this is an opportunity to pause, bow our heads and rejoice silently for an institution so devoted to the climate change as is the entire UK government because they are after all surrounded by water and at one time you could walk to Europe in the not so distance past……..
Its inspiring in some small way that they would correct themselves for being wrong on a AGW pronouncement as dire as “no more coffee for Ju!”.
Just like almost every other claim has been proven wrong.