WATCH: ‘A New Way to Think About Climate Change’
View our recent webinar on climate change, where we were joined by Dr. Walter E. Baethgen of Columbia University’s Earth Institute.
On Wednesday, September 16, World Coffee Research hosted the latest webinar in our “WCR Presents” series, featuring climate and agriculture expert Dr. Walter E. Baethgen of Columbia University's Earth Institute.
Dr. Baethgen has a long background in establishing regional research and education programs that aim to improve climate risk assessment and risk management in agriculture, health, water resources, and natural ecosystems. In the webinar, he joined WCR to explore how we should think about the immediate and near threats of climate change for coffee agriculture—not as a distant or incremental rise in overall temperatures occurring over decades, but as a shift to greater and more extreme year-to-year variability of temperature and precipitation.
The webinar also discussed how understanding climate change in this way allows us to more clearly explore opportunities for farmers to lower their climate risk, and illuminates pathways for fruitful research to address the challenge. Dr. Baethgen's presentation was followed by a brief update from WCR on work in partnership with researchers and farmers to develop varieties and approaches that have the highest chance of success given the rise in variability and extremes that farmers are facing.
Watch the full “A New Way to Think About Climate Change” webinar below.