WASHINGTON (AP) – A new study says global warming may leave people crying in their costlier beer.
The international study says bouts of extreme heat waves and drought will cut production of barley, a key ingredient of beer.
When that happens, beer prices on average could double. In countries like Ireland, prices could triple.
Previous studies have detailed how chocolate, coffee and wine will be made scarcer and more expensive because of human-caused global warming.
Steve Davis of the University of California, Irvine, says the beer research was partly done to drive home the not-that-palatable message that climate change is messing with all sorts of aspects of our daily lives.
Results appear in Monday’s journal Nature Plants.
