No more chardonnay or sauvignon blanc! Warming temperatures mean wine lovers will have to get used to less common plonk such as grenache and monastrell
I doubt that this is a real prospect but the best Sauvignon Blanc comes from New Zealand anyway. And I think very highly of Verdelho, which is a Portuguese grape well adapted to warmer climates. Verdelho is widely cultivated in Australia and I always have some of Tyrrells Verdelho on hand. So I doubt that there will be any shortage of pleasing wines anywhere
Wine lovers have been served disappointing news ahead of summer as they're warned they may have to say goodbye to chardonnay and sauvignon blanc and hello to less common plonk such as grenache and monastrell.
With global temperatures on the rise, wine drinkers will have to settle for rarer grape varieties that can cope with hotter and drier environments, according to experts.
Wine is naturally adapted to warm and dry climates because of its origins in the Mediterranean region, with the most popular grapes heavily reliant on irrigation - the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow plants.
But the process faces its own challenges as climate change makes water scarcer.
Wine has already become more alcoholic and has a sweeter taste, with vineyards harvesting almost three weeks earlier than they did just four decades ago.
Hotter growing-season temperatures are making it harder for growers to achieve balance in the fruit—and, therefore, in the finished wine.
But global warming is set to generate severe droughts and heatwaves that could leave a staggering 70 per cent of wine-growing regions across the planet unsuitable - if global temperatures rise by more than 2C.
Shocking figures show that the world is currently heading towards an almost 3C rise.
Around nine out of 10 vineyards that produce the grapes that make up favourites such as Spanish merlots and Italian sauvignon blancs could soon be forced to shut up shop.
Vineyards located in and around coastal and low-lying areas of Spain, Italy, Greece and southern California could be rendered unsuitable for growing, according to research published in The Times.
And although this means wine drinkers may have to settle for a lesser-known, drought-resistant grapes, such monastrell and grenache, it means the booze will continue to flow.
Adaptations to which types of grapes are grown and the process of how they are cultivated are being discussed in vineyards across the planet in an effort to tackle the issue.
At its most extreme, 'which type of grapes are grown' can mean a complete change of grape variety.
'The market needs to accept drinking other varieties than they're used to,' said Cornelis van Leeuwen, of the viticulture college Bordeaux Sciences Agro.
'Most of the international varieties, like sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, merlot, they're really not adapted to a warmer, drier climate'.
Bordeaux sanctioned the use of six new varieties in its vineyards two years ago.
More than half of vineyards across the world are planted with 12 varieties of grape - but luckily for wine lovers, there are thousands more available.
Beyond grape varieties, growers can sometimes 'create coolness' by planting seeds on differently oriented slopes that get less or 'cooler' sun/more wind, or at higher altitudes.
Some growers also believe they can mitigate the effects of climate change by using different clones of their existing grape varieties—versions that ripen later or more reluctantly.
A study, published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, explored just how climate change will impact wine-growing on a global scale.
It revealed that if temperatures are held to 2C, around 25 per cent of today's wine growing regions could benefit.
Another quarter would maintain their suitability.
But anything beyond 2C would lead to the catastrophic result of 70 per cent of the world's vineyards being unable to grow the most well-known and loved wine grapes.
Statistics from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show a world that is already more than 1°C warmer than before the industrial revolution.
Eight of the ten warmest years on record have occurred in the last decade.
In the last two years, there have been record temperatures from Canada to Sicily, wildfires in Australia, Portugal, Greece, and California, and floods in Australia and Germany.
New growing regions are also set to open in the UK, as the climate is becomes more suitable for growing.
Sussex and Kent are already leading the way with their vastly popular Rathfinny and Denbies estates that boast chalk soils and sloped landscapes, perfect for grape growing.
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Time of use price cap?
Net Zero Watch is warning that consumers are going to pay the price for the UK’s failing electricity system. The campaign group’s statement comes after Ofgem announced that it wanted to introduce a time-of-use price cap.
As renewables start to dominate the grid, prices need to rise dramatically when the wind isn’t blowing if supply and demand are to balance. But the current fixed price cap prevents this from happening, hence Ofgem’s announcement.
Net Zero Watch director Andrew Montford said:
This is energy rationing in all but name. It is not for the benefit of consumers, it’s papering over the cracks in the renewables-led grid.”
Since as far back as 2021, Mr Montford has been warning that smart meters would be used to ration electricity during wind lulls.
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Greenflation causes Indonesia and Vietnam to backtrack on renewables
Indonesia's recent lowering of its renewable energy targets highlights Southeast Asia's decarbonization challenges, with inflation and financing concerns growing across the region, from Malaysia to Vietnam.
Indonesia's National Energy Council in January revealed a plan to trim the target for renewables' portion in the country's primary energy mix to 17%-19% in 2025 and 19%-21% by 2030. The original target that was supposed to have kicked in next year was 23%. While setting a more ambitious goal of 70% renewables through 2060, council executives argued that the original target was simply out of reach. Currently, renewables account for only 13% of Indonesia's energy sources.
The council's revelation came not long after Indonesia's energy ministry said implementing a carbon tax would be further delayed to 2026; the tax was originally set to take effect in 2022.
The cuts indicate the government's "weak commitment" to energy transition and "rampant interest to preserve fossil fuels," the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), an Indonesian think tank, said in a news release.
Behind the backtracking is a growing concern over the rising cost of going green.
"Transitioning toward green energy must be done super carefully," incoming Vice President Gibran Rakabuming, son of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, said during an election debate in January. "We should not burden the public, the poor people with expensive R&D and transition [costs]."
The comment raised concerns over "greenflation," which arises when fossil fuels are discarded in favor of more expensive low-carbon technologies.
Malaysia's energy transition efforts could also be hobbled by greenflation as they hinge on imported parts and components, which are being made more expensive by the stubbornly weak ringgit, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof told Nikkei Asia.
Malaysia has embarked on a rather ambitious approach to decarbonization, rolling out 10 flagship projects along a National Energy Transition Roadmap that is expected to generate an estimated investment of over 25 billion ringgit ($5.5 billion) by 2030. The construction of renewable energy zones is included in the NETR.
However, Fadillah, who also holds the energy transition portfolio, warns that financing green technologies could become more challenging as investors "may be wary of the risks associated with emerging technologies and the potential impact of greenflation."
Nik Nazmi, minister of environment and climate change, said Malaysia would need significant investments in clean energy, energy efficiency and sustainable infrastructure to reach its net-zero goal by 2050. However, "the ministry realizes that the weaker currency would make it more expensive to import technologies, equipment and expertise needed for large-scale decarbonization projects."
"Greenflation concerns in Southeast Asia are real," said Prakash Sharma, vice president of multi-commodity research at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, noting that the macro environment has changed significantly during the past three years. "Rising cost of capital, supply chain pressures, cost inflation has affected [the] cost of renewable technologies quite significantly," he told Nikkei Asia, adding that the situation makes delays in renewable uptakes "unavoidable."
Oxford Economics in a February report said Southeast Asia's major economies would suffer from a rise in energy costs in the initial phase of decarbonization as carbon taxes are levied on fossil fuels, coupled with higher metal and mineral prices as demand increases for electric vehicle production and other green investments.
"Our modeling suggests the shift to net zero will initially bring adverse economic impacts through higher energy costs, but benefits will accrue eventually from the positive spillovers from investment," the report says, adding that net energy exporters Indonesia and Malaysia are "likely to face the biggest upfront costs."
In Singapore, Oxford Economics said the initial cost of decarbonization will be limited. Still, the city-state's National Climate Change Secretariat has said Singapore faces constraints in looking for green energy sources, since the island nation's tiny footprint keeps it from tapping sources on a wider scale.
Also, the government last month announced a requirement for all flights departing the country to use sustainable aviation fuel starting in 2026, despite concerns of it being more expensive than traditional jet fuel, which could prompt airlines to pass on higher costs to flyers.
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New Report Explodes Myth That ‘Extreme Weather’ is Getting Worse
Rising media star ‘Jim’ Dale (real name Noel Roger Dale) from British Weather Services (limited company dissolved) with a 40-year old proficiency certificate in thermometer reading from the Royal Navy can be relied upon to turn almost every bad weather event into the harbinger of complete climate collapse. Whatever the data thrown at him disproving his barking claims, ‘Jim’ carries on regardless. It is a comic tour de force, not to be missed.
Unfortunately this ‘Daleification’ of climate change is common throughout mainstream media. A recent extreme weather report written by the physicist Dr. Ralph B. Alexander notes that much of the fault for the erroneous perception that such events are becoming worse can be attributed to the mainstream media, “eager to promote the latest climate scare”. He argues that the failure by climate reporters to put today’s extremes in a true historical perspective “is contributing to the belief that weather extremes are on the rise when they are not”.
Published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Dr. Alexander argues: “Constant repetition of a false belief can, over time, create the illusion of truth – a phenomenon well known to psychologists and one exploited by propogandists. The falsehood can even become a ‘noble lie’ when exploited for political purposes.”
Of course, as regular readers of the Daily Sceptic are aware, bad or ‘extreme’ weather events are the main propaganda tools used to nudge global populations to accept the collectivist Net Zero project. It has long been realised that global warming doesn’t inspire the required levels of instant fear with temperatures rising, falling and pausing in both the near, historical and paleoclimatic record, mostly out of line with whatever the trace gas carbon dioxide is doing. It is difficult to raise the required panic when there is little more to show for 40 years of gentle warming than slightly milder winters and a substantially greener planet.
Dr. Alexander brings a vital historical perspective to the subject. Drawing on newspaper archives, he gives multiple examples of past extremes that match or exceed anything experienced in the present day. Collective memories of extreme weather are “short-lived”, he notes.
For instance, heatwaves of the past few decades pale into insignificance to those of the 1930s. The record shows that the heat wave was not just confined to the U.S. ‘Dust Bowl’ but extended throughout much of North America, as well as France, India and Australia. Major floods today are observed to be no more common nor deadly or disruptive than any of the thousands of floods in the past. Hurricanes overall have shown a decreasing trend around the globe, and the frequency of their landfalling has not changed for at least 50 years. The deadliest U.S. hurricane in recorded history killed an estimated 8-12,000 people in Galveston in 1900. As a comparison, the death toll of the category five Hurricane Ian, which deluged much of Florida in 2022 with a storm surge as high as Galveston, was just 156.
The biggest problem that Carry-on ‘Jim’ and the rest of mainstream media face in using extreme weather to push a political agenda is that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is lukewarm, or of “low confidence”, in attributing human involvement in a wide range of weather-related events.
The IPCC latest assessment report shows there is little or no evidence that the following have been, or will be out to 2100, affected by human-caused climate change: river floods, heavy rain and pluvial floods, landslides, drought (all types), fire ‘weather’, severe wind storms, tropical cyclones, sand and dust storms, heavy snowfall and ice storms, hail, snow avalanche, coastal flooding and erosion, and marine heatwaves.
As can be seen, this doesn’t leave much for the alarmists to get their teeth into, but ‘Daleification’ takes care of that by just ignoring all the findings.
Irritation with the caution of the IPCC has naturally led to a gap in the climate catastrophe market, and this explains the rise of so-called weather attribution studies. These use computer models to process imaginary atmospheres and come up with pseudoscientific findings claiming individual events are caused by humans. The best known, World Weather Attribution, is based at Imperial College, is funded by green billionaire Jeremy Grantham and is widely quoted in the popular prints. In Dr. Alexander’s view, the misconception that extreme events are on the rise is “further amplified” by these studies. “Such studies, while fashionable, use highly questionable methodology that has several shortcomings,” he observes.
In his excellent, well-researched report, Dr. Alexander goes back and quotes from many historical sources. The ‘noble lie’ is well covered in mainstream media, but, notes the author, “history tells a different story”.
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/24/new-report-explodes-myth-that-extreme-weather-is-getting-worse/
***************************************My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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