If the results of last week’s chilling U.N. climate report drove you to drink this weekend, first of all — we’re sorry. We don’t like it, either. Here’s a photo of a majestic elk sneezing to make you feel better.
Secondly, we hate to say it, but we’ve got even more bad news for anyone hoping to drown their sorrows during that apocalyptic future. According to a new study in the journal Nature Plants, it looks like rising global temperatures are going to ruin beer for us too — and your next pity pint could soon cost you more than a tank of gas.
In the new study, an international team of researchers from China, the U.K. and the U.S. ran a series of computer models to simulate the impact that increasingly hot and arid weather will have on the world’s production of barley — the primary ingredient in beer. They found that, in the worst-case scenario — that is, if current global carbon emissions levels are allowed to persist through the end of the century — the world will lose an average of 17 percent of its barley harvest, while some regions, including parts of Europe, could lose nearly half their yield. According to the researchers, that crop failure will have a severe impact on both the availability, and the price, of beer around the world.
By Brandon Specktor – Full Story at Live Science