Like much of the previous research on coffee, the study was based on survey data -- in this case, a single questionnaire distributed in the mid-1990s -- that may provide an incomplete picture of the participants' overall health and lifestyle.

CNN: Coffee drinking linked to longer life

"One study shows the cost of adapting a single watershed in China - that's one of the few case studies that's been done - comes in at a billion dollars a year, " he said.

BBC: Climate protection 'to cost more'