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That cup of coffee of yours may be at risk

Hard to consider that a cup of coffee might be at risk because climate change is threatening those precious arabica plants a new report shows.

"Climate change is threatening to put wild arabica coffee at risk of near extinction by 2080, a new study shows.

The "moderate" predictions from researchers at Britain's Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew with scientists in Ethiopia show that indigenous arabica plants, a bank of genetic diversity for the cultivated crop, face a "profoundly negative influence" from a warming planet.

"The extinction of arabica coffee is a startling and worrying prospect," said study co-author author Aaron Davis, head of coffee research at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

The researchers looked at three possible emission scenarios over three time intervals -- 2020, 2050 and 2080 --  in 349 localities across south-western Ethiopia, south-eastern South Sudan  and northern Kenya:

"Our modelling shows a profoundly negative trend for the future distribution of indigenous Arabica coffee under the influence of accelerated global climate change," according to the study."

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