News Reporter: Climate Coach: Buy-it-for-life coffee makers can save money, reduce waste, brew better

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Climate Coach
Down-to-earth advice for life on our changing planet.

By Michael J. Coren

Welcome. This week, honeybees and iguanas in trees. But first, I wrote about how your next coffee maker could be the last one you ever need to buy.

(Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters)

After water, coffee is America's most popular beverage. For good reason. Coffee elevates our mood and motivation, while blocking the chemical signals that make us feel tired. It's associated with a lower risk of head and neck cancer, Type 2 diabetes and Parkinson's disease. Caffeinated brew even forges community: Kings feared the politics fomenting in coffeehouses.

What's less wonderful is what's left behind: more than 10 billion paper and plastic cups each year, mountains of broken equipment, and tons of other waste. That new $50 drip coffee maker on your counter? Destined for the landfill after a few years of dispensing mediocre coffee.

So I went in search of a better way: Buy it for life. For those unfamiliar with the BIFL movement, it's a grassroots rebellion against a culture and an economy designed to be disposable. Adherents look for items that will stand the test of time, even if they cost more up-front.

Coffee needs a BIFL makeover. We're wasting good money, and beans, on shoddy equipment. When coffee makers don't brew properly, people dump in more coffee to compensate — enough beans to make about 20 cups of coffee per month, one expert estimated.

For this week's Climate Coach column, I wrote about which coffee makers can help you save money, reduce waste and brew better.

Write me with your questions at climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails.

Click here to read the column

Field Sample

In 2024, I travel to Florida to hunt iguanas. This month, Florida officials are trying to solve their invasive species problem by harvesting cold-stunned green iguanas that are falling from trees.

"This is the first time we have organized a removal effort of invasive iguanas," said Shannon Knowles, communications director for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The commission's executive order allows people without permits to gather and transport the iguanas to be humanely killed or sold.

Learning Curve

El Niño may be coming. Record global warmth may be right behind.

Record-breaking "wind bursts" are pushing some of the world's warmest ocean water from the West Pacific toward South America, a signal that a planet-warming El Niño may be on the way.

This could drive severe weather, coral bleaching, hurricanes and rainfall patterns across South America, Africa and Asia.

Read more about how the next three years may set new worldwide temperature records.

Snapshot

We saved the bees, writes columnist Dana Milbank. The bad news? We saved the wrong ones. The save-the-bees movement originated as a response to a crash in the honeybee population. But while useful for pollinating crops, honeybees were never threatened by extinction. And well-meaning efforts to boost their numbers can accelerate the decline of native bees that actually are.

A bee on a flower at Dana Milbank's farm in Sperryville, Virginia. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)

Scientists are finding that honeybees can spread disease and outcompete native bees for pollen and nectar. They also promote non-native plants at the expense of the ones on which native bees thrive.

Read more about how to elevate our 4,000 native bees over a single species of interlopers.

On the Climate Front

From The Post:

The researcher bringing dignity to disaster aid with cold, hard cash

It's been an unusually harsh winter, maps show. When will that end?

In parts of America, even the smallest ponds are "lakes" and tiny streams are "rivers." What gives?

From elsewhere:

Longtime Exxon lawyers retreat from oil company's climate cases (E&E)

Clean energy drove more than a third of China's GDP growth in 2025 (CarbonBrief)

Don't let climate fatalism become a self-fulfilling prophecy (MIT Press Reader)

After a hard week, Miska and I often hit the beach. This past week was one of them. The beauty of the natural world reminds me why I do this work.

I want to thank all of you who read this column and the work of hundreds of others at The Post, who are still coming to work each day to help you understand the world. Thank you.

Send me your photos and stories at climatecoach@washpost.com