I recently attended a sustainability talk done by Kirk French entitled, “On the Rocks: The Sobering Effects of Climate Change on Global Alcohol Production”. Kirk started off by talking about his time spent in Mexico and how almost all of the alcohol that we consume is plant based. He discussed how tequila, which is made from agave, is specifically feeling the “heat” of climate change. Due to climate change, there have been many changes in the weather that have caused not only warmer summers but also colder winters. These colder winters have been killing off agave due to the plants not being able to adapt to the change in temperature. In the past, agave plants have taken ten years to mature but due to the summers being hotter every year, they now are maturing in five years. This may seem like a good thing because we do not have to wait as long for them to be ready to be harvested, but it is quite the opposite. These faster maturing agave plants have different sugars than typical agave and farmers have to use fertilizer to help them grow. Because they are maturing too quickly, the quality of these plants are not as good as they should be. Farmers have also started to grow agave in vitro (in test tubes/petri dishes outside of the organism) in order to stop them from maturing too quickly. These agave that are grown in vitro are the same species as the regular agave, but just one disease can wipe out an entire field when they are put back. Also in Mexico, climate change is causing disruption in barley fields that are used to make beer. Climate change has caused an unstable climate, water shortages, and infrequent but more intense rainfall. The many changes in the weather have damaged the crops and caused there to be a decrease in barley yields. Not only is this a bad thing for the farmers who make a living off of producing crops, but it also will negatively impact the consumer. Due to the decrease in barley yields, the price of beer will only increase. Similar trends are also being seen in Mongolia. Climate change has also caused “dzuds” or deadly winters to occur more frequently than they have in the past. These dzuds being more frequent have caused crops that are used to make alcohol to die, which has led to people not having a way to live off of the land anymore. People are being forced to migrate away from their countries to a more industrial setting because there is no work for them anymore. Animals have also been affected by climate change in these areas and there have been a lot of deaths as a result of the changes in temperature being too extreme. Kirk ended his presentation by stressing the need for action now and how important it is to educate others on what they can do to help stop the effects of climate change. In our course we have talked about how climate change is linked to human action, and the individual needs to make changes in order to make an impact.