The Global Coffee Crisis Is Coming
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Provided by: Vox|Published on: April 27, 2021
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Scientist Reviewed This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This video from Vox explains how climate change is limiting the number of places in the world where coffee can be grown.
- Students will learn about the history of Colombia's coffee industry and how current price volatility inhibits farmers from making expensive adaptations to their farms that would allow them to continue growing coffee as temperatures rise.
Subjects: Economics, History
Authors: Vox
Region: South and Central America, Global
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- This video integrates interviews with Colombian coffee farmers with graphs, maps, charts, and data in a way that will draw students in.
- Students will understand how trade policies, economic decisions, and climate change are interconnected.
Prerequisites
- This video contains advertisements before and during the video.
- Students should have an understanding of greenhouse gas emissions and their relationship to climate change.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Civics and government classes can discuss the pros and cons of Colombia's decision to break up large farms and sell smaller pieces of land to individual farmers.
- History, social studies, and government classes can learn more about the International Coffee Agreement of 1962 and why it began to fall apart in the 1980s.
- Economics classes can research why coffee prices are unstable and the role that unfair labor practices plays in the low cost of coffee.
- Science classes can learn more about how silvopasture, or interspersing shade trees with crops, provides shade for crops and creates carbon sinks.
- Other resources on this topic include this video on sustainable practices for coffee agriculture, this NASA video that shows global temperature changes over the last 140 years, and this TED video on how to build a thriving economy instead of an expanding economy.
Scientist Notes
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
