Climate Change Likely to Ding Beer Supply

The average price of a pint could double by the end of this century because of declines in barley yields, a study predicts.

Written byShawna Williams

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ABOVE: A barley field
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In a collaboration that came about over drinks, an international team of climate researchers has modelled the effects of climate change on barley and beer production. Their predictions, published today (October 15) in Nature Plants, include a drop of 3 percent to 17 percent in barley yields by 2099, a decrease in the supply of beer, and sharp increases in prices.

“Climate change will affect all of us, not only people who are in India or African countries,” coauthor Dabo Guan of the University of East Anglia in the UK tells Reuters.

CNN reports that Guan and others hatched the idea for the study when they went out for beers in China after a series of lectures. They used climate change data to model the projected effects on barley yields and the economic response to those changes. Under the most severe scenario for a ...

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Meet the Author

Shawna Williams
Shawna was an editor at The Scientist from 2017 through 2022. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Colorado College and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Previously, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, and in the communications offices of several academic research institutions. As news director, Shawna assigned and edited news, opinion, and in-depth feature articles for the website on all aspects of the life sciences. She is based in central Washington State, and is a member of the Northwest Science Writers Association and the National Association of Science Writers.
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