Check Your Facts, WTAE ABC, Activists Are Lying, Coffee Production Is Booming Amidst Climate Change
By
H. Sterling Burnett
March 13, 2026
WTAE ABC, Pittsburgh, published a story titled, “Climate change affecting global coffee production, study finds.” The study is false, perpetrated by a climate activist group called Climate Central, and uncritically echoed by WTAE meteorologist Jill Szwed. Had Szwed or WTAE fact-checked Climate Central’s claims against real world data, they would have found coffee production has increased dramatically around the world amid the modest recent warming, including in each of the countries cited in WTAE’s story.
“A study from Climate Central revealed that climate change is making coffee production more challenging and expensive, affecting the flavor and availability of coffee worldwide,” writes Szwed. “Climate Central analyzed daily temperatures over the last five years in 25 coffee-growing countries, including Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Ethiopia and Indonesia.
“Temperatures exceeding 86 degrees Fahrenheit negatively affect the growth of Arabica and Robusta coffee plants,” Szwed continued. “On average, countries in the “bean belt” experienced nearly two extra months of harmful heat.”
Szwed is referencing the same study that Climate Realism debunked just two weeks ago. If additional heat is hampering coffee production in Brazil, Columbia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Vietnam, or globally it isn’t reflected in actual coffee production data. The facts are these.
Data from the FAO show that during the twenty-first century, the period that has supposedly been the warmest in recent history, coffee production has increased substantially, globally, and in each of the five countries WTAE highlighted in its story: Brazil, Columbia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. From 1995 to 2024, the most recent year for which data is available:
https://climaterealism.com/2026/03/check-your-facts-wtae-abc-activists-are-lying-coffee-production-is-booming-amidst-climate-change/
