A Big Step Forward to Save our Wine?

If I said that something was potentially threatening the Bordeaux wine you’re drinking, or the olive oil you’re cooking with, or that lovely piece of fresh fish that’s in the pan sizzling, would you want to know what?  Would you want to know how to stop it?  If it threatened our everyday luxuries of course we would!  But if we mention climate change these days, many of us just roll our eyes as the topic is becoming repetitive, mundane, or we think: “Yes!  I want a warmer summer!”

Today, more than 190 countries from around the world signed an agreement to help stop climate change.  They hope to limit the warming of our planet to no more than 1.5 ⁰C above pre-industrial times (Vidal, Goldenberg, Taylor & Boffey, 2015).  The rising temperatures are often blamed for the weather patterns getting more severe; more floods, more storms, more drought and fires.  The ice-caps are melting causing rising sea levels, and the oceans are becoming more acidic.  And yes, we can see our weather changing, and the pictures of polar bears on tiny little ice blocks, but it still doesn’t “affect” us in a direct way.

(Anderson, 2013)

Now what if you knew that this small, tiny change in temperature could mean that one day your Bordeaux style wine could no longer be grown in Bordeaux?  That the olive oil and lavenders farms in Provence would be gone?  An article on nationalgeographic.com stated that this week.  It’s been suggested that in 30-40 years, a large amount of the wine-growing regions we know today will no longer be able to produce wine due to changes in temperatures, weather patterns, and insect behaviour (Welch, 2015).  The same is expected for olive and lavender plantations (Welch, 2015).  A winery I deal with, Champagne Taittinger, announced this week their purchase of land in England with the intention of planting grapevines as the climate there is getting milder.  Perhaps England will become the new Champagne or new Bordeaux.  Maybe Germany will be the new olive growing capital of the world.

But it’s not just crops affected. Animals andbreeding earlier, and populations are moving out of their normal territories (Than, 2005) which could potentially lead to ecosystem changes.  The warming waters are moving fish populations out of their usual regions as they search for cooler seas (Press, 2014).  If this is already happening after only a small change in temperature so far, what would a greater change do?
insects are

Let’s be glad that our nation’s leaders have managed to come to today’s agreement, and that hopefully this small step will be the big step our environment needs so that we can forever drink Bordeaux from Bordeaux!

References:

 

 Anderson, H. (2013).  Wine tasting notes: red Bordeaux.  Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/10086303/Wine-tasting-notes-red-Bordeaux.html

Press, R. (2014). The oceanadapt website: Tracking fish populations as the climate changes. Retrieved from http://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/stories/2014/12/oceanadapt_trackingfish.html

 

Than, K. (2005). How global warming is changing the wild kingdom.  Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/3864-global-warming-changing-wild-kingdom.html

 Vidal, J., Goldenberg, S., Taylor, L., & Boffey, D. (2015).  ‘A major leap for mankind’: world leaders hail Paris deal on climate.  Retrieved from www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/13/world-leaders-hail-paris-climate-dealVidal

Welch, C. (2015). Provence’s legendary lavender and olives threatened by a changing climate.  Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/12/151211-paris-climate-lavender-wine-olives-truffles-provence/