July 11, 2006
No longer a victimless crime
All those naysayers who see global warming as a silly myth or the harmless coming of endless summer can no longer say the ongoing renovation of Earth’s atmosphere isn’t going to hurt anyone. The geniuses from the department of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue University just published a fine paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explaining how global warming is going to absolutely decimate the California wine industry.
The premium grape regions of Sonoma and Napa will be reduced by 50 to 81 percent by the end of the century, spelling certain doom for the plethora of wineries doting the heart of California. The impact will be devastating because more frequent extra-hot summer days means less sugar production from those temperamental grapes. To get an industry expert’s response, The AP sought out Oregon State University professor of food science and technology James A. Kennedy who summed up the carnage of global warming thusly:
“The lion’s share of the industry is in California, so it’s a huge concern from a wine quality standpoint.”
He does have a point though. With the increase in extreme weather events, (both news crew friendly events like hurricanes and the less photogenic extremes like droughts) receding glaciers, rising oceans, species extinctions and rampant diseases global warming promises to bring we’re going to need all the high quality wine we can find.
But all is not lost. The Purdue study looks beyond the lost growing areas in California to boldly predict where we might grow some primo wine grapes in the 22nd century. The big global warming fad is likely to improve conditions for wine grapes in parts of the northeast and northwest. Unfortunately there will be less overall territory for the vineyard to claim. This means we should probably plan ahead and help the best wineries buy up land in Oregon and New England. Then they can move on up as the temperature rises and continue providing us with top notch hootch without interruption.
It’s either that or all those wine drinkers will just have to learn to like beer and spirits if they want to be cool in the next century.
ha ha! Way to bring the issue home!
Working in produce and knowing a bit about science, I can tell you that it’s scary to see just exactly how imminently (as in right the F*@K now) the effects of global warming are upon us.
How did they get a team of scientists from Purdue to stop drinking Natty Light and pimping the virtues of ethanol long enough to study wine country? Did someone cancel the 237th replay of the WSOP on The Ocho?
I’m either gonig to go down with the ship, or move to Montana and nurse my growing Sparks addiciton.
I read that, due almost entirely to the LA area’s driving habits (like driving FIVE Hummers each), in 50 or so years the Sierra Nevadas will no longer get snow. NO snow. At all. This is why they have horrendous fires and no water for their precious grapes. Its already having an effect - guess where they get the water they use now? Oregon. Yup. The other place good wines come from. When is that earthquake coming anyway? Mother Nature is watching her clock. Tick Tock.