Eps 3: What would happen when the worls runs out of tea?
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Roger Marshall
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In a world affected by climate change, people are more likely to drink the tea they have had to adapt to. Some of the largest tea-growing areas in the world will be hardest hit by extreme weather and their yields are likely to decline significantly over the next few decades if the climate collapse continues at its current pace. In Kenya, which produces almost half of all the tea consumed in the UK, areas with optimal tea growing conditions will be reduced by more than a quarter by 2050, while about 39% of areas with quality growing media are on the verge of destruction. , according to the report.
According to a study published in early 2021, a quarter of municipal cemeteries will be filled in 10 years, and one in six by five. In the UK, partly due to the surge in urban and rural life, the question of where to place all these bodies is particularly acute.
Current forecasts are that Cape Town will run out of water within a few months. Cape Town may be the first big city to run out of water, but Cape Town won't be the last. A new study published today in the journal Science Advances suggests that if we burned all the remaining fossil fuels on Earth, nearly all of Antarctica's ice would melt, which could cause sea levels to rise by as much as 200 feet, enough to submerge most of it One of the major cities in the world.
NASA estimates sea level rise will increase by at least 3 feet, likely within the next century. Scientists increasingly believe that avoiding the worst effects of climate change will require “total carbon neutrality… in 50 years,” according to a widely publicized scientific assessment that appeared in January. According to a study, your morning cup of tea may never be the same if global warming intensifies and the climate crisis intensifies.
Beyond the fact that farmers can grow enough tea in a changing climate, there is also the question of whether it will still taste the same and retain its potential health benefits. Climate change often affects the amount of tea farmers grow. Less labor also means more bush growth, which will later affect yield potential, said tea garden owner Rajib Barua. The premium people will be paying for this spicy tea is such that, Orians says, even if plants affected by green tea larvae have 15-50% lower yields, farmers' profits could increase by up to 100%.
Green tea is richer in epigallocatechin-3 gallate and black tea is richer in theaflavins; studies have shown that both may provide health benefits. Some fruit teas are naturally sweet with no added sweeteners. Herbal teas also contain polyphenols, but these vary greatly depending on their plant origin.
Additives of sugar, cream or milk can reduce the polyphenol content of tea. These aromatic compounds, known as secondary metabolites, can also help boost the immune system and have anti-inflammatory properties, and can also be diluted when plants get too much water, resulting in reduced leaf quality and a poorer tea flavor. Part of the reason for the decline in tea quality is dilution of the chemicals that give the tea its flavor: the leaves absorb more water due to the extra rain.
Black tea is made by grinding and drying fresh tea leaves and fermenting them, which oxidizes the leaves and changes color and taste. Exposure to sunlight on tea plants, which can damage crops, is on the rise in both China and Assam. Most tea-producing areas in China are located in the south, where total rainfall is increasing and heavy rains that can damage tea crops are becoming more frequent.
Turkey, the world's largest per capita consumer of tea, is generally self-sufficient in production but faces a labor shortage in Turkey. The International Tea Committee estimates that India's exports will fall by 7% in 2020. Even more troubling is the fact that in recent years wine production in Europe, which accounts for about half of the world's reserves, has fallen by a staggering 10%. Of course, there may be a million winemakers worldwide producing around 2.8 billion cases of wine per year, but that's still not enough to meet the ever-increasing demand for more wine.
Kung Fu Tea is also preparing for further shortages of ingredients such as coconut flour and taro, said Mai Shi. Kung Fu Tea, the country's largest bubble tea chain with 250 stores, predicts that the bubble tea shortage in 2021 may last longer. Bubble tea products, also known as boba, are becoming harder to come by as another COVID-19-related shortage emerges. Panic arose when drinkers learned of a shortage of tapioca flour, a starch used to create the sweet, round, chewy black bubbles used to garnish the popular tea drink boba.
Darjeeling Tea Association secretary Kaushik Basu said yields would drop by more than 10% after the second wash and subsequent washes would not be able to make up for those losses. As more and more energy comes from the sun, wind, tides and other variable sources, the problem of balancing fluctuating supply and fluctuating demand will become more acute. Many energy engineers predict that when renewables provide 20 to 30 percent of all electricity, the system will no longer be able to balance supply and demand. However, industry players and the ITC do not expect the hot tea trend to continue in the long term, as major exporters were oversupplied in 2019, although in the short term, the supply-demand balance is disrupted.