Jim Tumbls.

Blog Action Day encourages you to write about climate change in the context of how it relates to the topic of your blog. Mine is kind of a weird collection of humorous posts, political rants, and funny pictures. There is a recurring theme, though, and that tends to be wine. Keeping with the other posts I make, this one will be littered with links to other sites.

Coincidentally, around the same time Anne told me about Blog Action Day, I read an interesting article on The Pour which I read from time to time. It was my first exposure to the recent news about the effects of climate change on wine. Leave it to Greenpeace to cite study after study to make sure anyone who’s interested in anything has something affected by climate change! :)

Weather is a vine’s best friend and worst enemy. Hot, dry weather in the end of the summer is great for the ripening. Wet, cloudy, and cool weather will not allow the grapes to ripen properly, leaving less than ideal fruit for turning into wine. Throw in damaging thunderstorms with hail and colder than normal winters, and it’s amazing we have some vines approaching 100 years old! As if all of these short-term weather events weren’t enough, Greanpeace’s report suggests there is even more danger for wine-loving people across the world in the decades to come.

Besides possibly flooding wine regions currently at or near sea level (including some of my favorite Mediterranean regions), surviving vineyards will be displaced by 1,000 kilometers due to changing temperatures. The report focused on the French wine industry, which has some supporting data already. Around Beaune, the center of the Côte d’Or region, grapes were harvested generally 13 days earlier from 1988 to 2006 than from 1973 to 1987. Over the same period, the report states, the time it took grapes to progress from ripening to maturity dropped to 40 days from 50 days.

Interestingly, many wine regions (including France and my local Lehigh Valley wine region) have benefited in recent years from changing weather by producing excellent vintages. (This year will likely be an exception for PA, though, because of the wet and cold summer we just finished.) The 2006, 2007, and 2008 vintages were some of the best for the Lehigh Valley in decades.

So, short term wine goodness, but displacing climates for vineyards is kind of a big deal. Mediterranean vineyards completely gone, French vineyards more closely resembling what the Mediterranean wines are line now. Industry will need to adapt and still entire flavors will simply disappear. There’s also the possibility of new vine diseases as well as increased flooding and erosion. The fear is great enough for French winemakers to ask for government intervention on the topic of worldwide climate change.

Now of course, as with any issue, this is just one side of the argument and the full effects may never be observed. But it’s something to consider as we leave our mark on the world.

Read more commentary about climate change from bloggers around the world at http://blogactionday.org/ today, Blog Action Day.