{"id":319733,"date":"2024-04-22T14:14:23","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T12:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=319733"},"modified":"2024-04-22T14:14:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T12:14:26","slug":"no-wall-street-journal-climate-change-is-not-threatening-coffee-and-cocoa-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=319733","title":{"rendered":"No, Wall Street Journal, Climate Change Is Not Threatening Coffee and Cocoa Production"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Linnea Lueken<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An article from the Wall Street Journal, \u201cCocoa and Coffee Prices Have Surged. Climate Change Will Only Take Them Higher<\/a>,\u201d claims that climate change is driving recent spikes in the price of cocoa and coffee, and that things will likely get worse as warming continues. This is false. Cocoa and coffee have both set production records multiple times during the recent period of slight warming. A single bad season, or even a few bad seasons, for certain crops in certain regions of the world is not indicative of long-term change, significant shift, or trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that prices for coffee and cocoa are \u201csurging as severe weather events hamper production in key regions, raising questions from farm to table over the long-term damage climate change could have on soft commodities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WSJ adds that \u201cmore frequent heat waves, heavy rainfalls and droughts are damaging harvests and crippling supplies amid ever growing demand from customers worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As discussed in multiple Climate Realism<\/em> posts, data refutes claims that heat waves<\/a>, droughts<\/a>, or heavy rainfall<\/a> are becoming more severe or more frequent. Also both coffee and cocoa bean production has enjoyed a steady climb over the decades, even amid modest warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heat waves, heavy rain, and drought are all weather events that certainly can, and often do, impact crop production for a wide range of produce, not just cocoa and coffee, but evidence that these events are becoming a bigger threat to production is lacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WSJ themselves point to a natural cause of the most recent heat waves and rainfall in West Africa, home of 70% of cocoa production: \u201cpowerhouses Ivory Coast and Ghana are facing catastrophic harvests this season as El Ni\u00f1o\u2014the pattern of above-average sea surface temperatures\u2014led to unseasonal heavy rainfalls followed by strong heat waves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s heat and rain in both Africa and other parts of the world have been driven largely by El Ni\u00f1o, as discussed by Climate Realism<\/em> here<\/a>, for example, but that phenomenon is temporary, natural, and likely has already ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it were true that climate change was leading to an increase in these kinds of events, that trend should be reflected in production data of coffee and cocoa over time, but the opposite appears in the data. Instead of a long-term trend of struggle and collapse, production has never been better for either coffee or cocoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to data<\/a> from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization covering the last three decades of climate change:<\/p>\n\n\n\n