For coffee growers, climate change forecasts already are worrisome enough, calling as they do for severe droughts and higher-intensity hurricanes. But a new study suggests rising global temperatures will face coffee farmers with yet another major problem: proliferation of the coffee berry borer. A black beetle, the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) is considered the coffee industry’s most destructive pest. It is found in most coffee-growing regions in the world, including Mexico, Central America and South America, and can destroy up to 20% of plantation coffee crops in the tropics, costing growers hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The study, published Aug. 3 in the online journal PloS One, was conducted by scientists from the Nairobi-based International Center of Insect Physiology... [Log in to read more]