The Wall Street Journal’s Left Turn on Climate Change Is Unwarranted, ‘The Finer Things in Life’ Goes Widespread – Are You Enjoying It?
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article titled “Climate change is coming to better things in life,” said that by causing “extreme weather,” climate change is disrupting crop production for many crops. This story is wrong on two counts: First, there is no evidence that climate change is causing erratic weather or changing weather trends; Second, yields and yields of each crop discussed in the story have increased dramatically during periods of moderate warming and have often set records. Either way, climate change has led to more grapes (and wine), olives (and olive oil), coffee, and cocoa.
“As the world warms, extreme weather is disrupting the production of some of life’s great amenities like wine, olive oil, coffee and cocoa,” Jon Emont writes for the WSJ. “Some of these crops are concentrated in one or two regions, which means extreme weather in one part of the world can have a dizzying impact on global prices.”
Actual data are presented in Climate overviewShows drought, heat wave, flood, tropical stormAnd Forest fires, or many other extreme weather events or impacts that have not yet become “catastrophic.” Such events are no longer as frequent, strong, or unpredictable as they once were. And, plants And pollinator species are doing well. So, except for the usual ups and downs that farmers have always experienced throughout history, nothing strange is happening in terms of weather. Hundreds of posts above Climate realism confirm that weather trends does not get worse and crop growth has increased, including crops and areas discussed by the WSJ, such as Vietnam And west African.
Regarding the crops mentioned, agricultural production is always more or less dependent on the weather. So olive and related olive oil production may decline for a year or two, same with grapes and wine, coffee and cocoa, but to demonstrate that climate change is causing decline decline, one must look at the long-term trends. or two The weather this year is not evidence of climate change do.
Look at the crop data to see what, if any, trends exist, which neither Emont nor the WSJ do. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations maintains a database of global agricultural production, and it shows that each crop and product discussed by Emon in his erroneous WSJ post has many set new records in productivity and output in the past thirty years of climate change. From 1990 to 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, FAO data shows that olive production increased by about 138% and production increased by about 61%. During that same period, olives set new production records 11 times, with the most recent record set in 2018, with the second highest year of production coming in 2020. Record-setting olive production 8 times since 1990. Although not all olives are used to make olive oil, olive oil trends are similar. From 1990 to 2021, the last year of FAO data, olive oil production increased by a little more than 124%. (See picture below)
Like dozens Climate realism articles have shown before, what is true of olives is also true of grapes, cocoaAnd coffee also.
Regarding cocoa and coffee, since 1990:
- Cocoa bean production just set a recent record high in 2022;
- World cocoa bean output increased by 132%;
- West Africa’s cocoa bean output increased by 167%;
- World coffee output set latest record high in 2020;
- World coffee production has increased by 77%.
Data shows that grape and wine yields have also increased significantly since 1990, as detailed in Climate realism posts, This, ThisAnd ThisFor example.
Emont and the WSJ attempted to mislead readers by omitting production and yield data and instead using data on the prices of these crops as a proxy for availability. It is certainly true that the prices of grapes/wine, olives/olive oil, cocoa/chocolate and coffee have increased significantly in recent years, but not because of supply shortages, rather They are affected by high inflation and the same supply chain problems that nearly every other good and service has. Inflation has caused almost every good and service to increase in price sharply since 2021. Indeed, instead of climate change President Joe Biden’s climate and energy policiesand its energy and climate policies other countriesbear the brunt of rising food prices due to rising fossil fuel prices, which are vital for the fertilizers, pesticides and transportation fuels used to plant, grow, harvest and transport transport crops to market.
Nest time, Emon and WSJ, if you want to warn about impending product shortages due to climate change, you should first check to see whether the products in question are actually in shortage. If they last for a year, you should see if the shortage is part of a lasting trend. Prices are driven by a lot of things. I don’t know of any cases where climate change has caused prices to skyrocket. Recent price increases are driven by government policies, not climate change, and have nothing to do with crop supply.
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