By Luis Enrique for Wine-Republic.comMendocinean Luis Enrique gives us his view, in the eyes of an economist, on the effect of climate change on the wine markets.
We are currently going through a worldwide shift in weather, and its effects shouldn´t be narrowed down to just higher temperatures, especially when talking about suitable conditions for grape growing and winemaking, so there´s much more to keep in mind when it comes to the way it might be affecting the water supply for agriculture.
What is climate change?
Contrary to what many people think, ´climate change´ is a much wider concept than just ´global warming´. Climate change actually describes the evolution of weather conditions over different periods of time in either direction, hence it could also refer to cooling.
The usual confusion comes down to the fact that over the past few decades average temperatures have gradually climbed, a phenomenon usually ascribed to the growing impact of greenhouse gases altering critical environmental issues.
In fact, recent data released by NASA shows that the average global temperature has lately increased by more than 0.6 °C (in Argentina this goes up to 1°C over the last hundred years), while arctic ice sea has been declining by 11.5% each decade.
How it affects Argentina and the wine industry
More than 70% of Argentina´s vineyards are located in Mendoza, mostly at high altitudes at the foot of the Andes (sometimes up to 1000 meters above sea level). Since Mendoza is quite...Read Full Article
