Fourteen years ago, on this day, June 14th, 2011,
CLIMATE change is a ticking time-bomb for Australia’s $5.5 billion wine industry and threatens some of our favourite wines with extinction, a study has revealed.
CSIRO climate change scientist and wine expert Leanne Webb examined ripening times across Australia and found grapes were maturing faster in recent warmer temperatures, affecting quality and taste.
Some growers say they are already modifying their winemaking to cope with the effects and at least one major player is taking steps to move production further south.
By Robert Burton-Bradley, NewsComAu
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/climate-change-threatens-australias-wine-industry-study-warns/news-story/afae2b1bc6ee62fb8858df1ee52019de
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 394ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was Australian scientists had been warning about the impacts of climate change on agriculture since the late 1970s. It wasn’t a secret.
The specific context was that a rough coalition of people, organisations, business sectors were trying to work together to support the Gillard “carbon pricing” effort (see AOY passim ad nauseam) and this – “wine will be affected” was one of the memes to get across how Serious it all was.
What I think we can learn from this
As human beings is that we just haven’t created and sustained the sorts of institutions that help us understand a complex world and relatively simple problems like climate change (I said relatively!). And in the absence of those institutions (life-long self-directed learning, workers education associations, independent civil society) then people are prey to all sorts of weapons of mass distraction and mental immiseration. And here we are.
As “active citizens” see above. The institutions were destroyed in the aftermath of World War 2….
Academics might like to ponder who they are writing for.
What happened next. Gillard’s legislation passed, possibly had some effect and was then abolished by the next Prime Minister, Tony Abbott.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
If you want to get involved, let me know.
If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).
Also on this day:
June 14, 1979 – the messy inclusion of climate change in energy politics – All Our Yesterdays