scholarly journals Global warming and wine quality: are we close to the tipping point?

OENO One ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-361
Author(s):  
Gregory A. Gambetta ◽  
Sahap Kaan Kurtural

Wine grapes are one of the most lucrative crops in the world and this value is founded heavily on traditional winegrowing regions established over hundreds of years. These regions are now experiencing marked changes in climate. People speculate that global warming could reshape the distribution of premium wine-growing regions, pushing regions to higher latitudes and elevations with cooler temperatures. A major redistribution of this kind would be catastrophic for numerous regional economies. Here we examine relationships between warming, fruit ripening, and wine quality in two renowned red wine regions; Napa Valley, California, USA, and Bordeaux, France. We show that both regions have warmed substantially over the past 60+ years and that until now this warming has contributed to increases in the average wine quality. However, ripening relationships revealed that we are reaching a plateau and raise concerns that we may be approaching a tipping point in traditional wine-growing regions.

Author(s):  
Cheryl Colopy

From a remote outpost of global warming, a summons crackles over a two-way radio several times a week: . . . Kathmandu, Tsho Rolpa! Babar Mahal, Tsho Rolpa! Kathmandu, Tsho Rolpa! Babar Mahal, Tsho Rolpa! . . . In a little brick building on the lip of a frigid gray lake fifteen thousand feet above sea level, Ram Bahadur Khadka tries to rouse someone at Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology in the Babar Mahal district of Kathmandu far below. When he finally succeeds and a voice crackles back to him, he reads off a series of measurements: lake levels, amounts of precipitation. A father and a farmer, Ram Bahadur is up here at this frigid outpost because the world is getting warmer. He and two colleagues rotate duty; usually two of them live here at any given time, in unkempt bachelor quarters near the roof of the world. Mount Everest is three valleys to the east, only about twenty miles as the crow flies. The Tibetan plateau is just over the mountains to the north. The men stay for four months at a stretch before walking down several days to reach a road and board a bus to go home and visit their families. For the past six years each has received five thousand rupees per month from the government—about $70—for his labors. The cold, murky lake some fifty yards away from the post used to be solid ice. Called Tsho Rolpa, it’s at the bottom of the Trakarding Glacier on the border between Tibet and Nepal. The Trakarding has been receding since at least 1960, leaving the lake at its foot. It’s retreating about 200 feet each year. Tsho Rolpa was once just a pond atop the glacier. Now it’s half a kilometer wide and three and a half kilometers long; upward of a hundred million cubic meters of icy water are trapped behind a heap of rock the glacier deposited as it flowed down and then retreated. The Netherlands helped Nepal carve out a trench through that heap of rock to allow some of the lake’s water to drain into the Rolwaling River.


Author(s):  
Basanti Jain

The abnormal increase in the concentration of the greenhouse gases is resulting in higher temperatures. We call this effect is global warming. The average temperature around the world has increased about 1'c over 140 years, 75% of this has risen just over the past 30 years. The solar radiation, as it reaches the earth, produces "greenhouse effect" in the atmosphere. The thick atmospheric layers over the earth behaves as a glass surface, as it permits short wave radiations from coming in, but checks the outgoing long wave ones. As a result, gradually the atmosphere gets heated up during the day as well as night. If such an effect were not there in the atmosphere the ultraviolet, infrared and other ionizing radiations would have also entered our atmosphere and the very existence of life would have been endangered. The ozone layer shields the earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiations. The warm earth emits long wave (infrared)   radiations, which is partly absorbed by the green house gaseous blanket. This atmospheric blanket raises the earth’s temperature.


Author(s):  
Robert Pool

The past couple of decades have been a confusing, frustrating period for engineers. With their creations making the world an ever richer, healthier, more comfortable place, it should have been a time of triumph and congratulation for them. Instead, it has been an era of discontent. Even as people have come to rely on technology more and more, they have liked it less. They distrust the machines that are supposedly their servants. Sometimes they fear them. And they worry about the sort of world they are leaving to their children. Engineers, too, have begun to wonder if something is wrong. It is not simply that the public doesn’t love them. They can live with that. But some of the long-term costs of technology have been higher than anyone expected: air and water pollution, hazardous wastes, the threat to the Earth’s ozone layer, the possibility of global warming. And the drumbeat of sudden technological disaster over the past twenty years is enough to give anyone pause: Three Mile Island, Bhopal, the Challenger, Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez, the downing of a commercial airliner by a missile from the U.S.S. Vincennes. Is it time to rethink our approach to technology? Some engineers believe that it is. In one specialty after another, a few prophets have emerged who argue for doing things in a fundamentally new way. And surprisingly, although these visionaries have focused on problems and concerns unique to their own particular areas of engineering, a single underlying theme appears in their messages again and again: Engineers should pay more attention to the larger world in which their devices will function, and they should consciously take that world into account in their designs. Although this may sound like a simple, even a self-evident, bit of advice, it is actually quite a revolutionary one for engineering. Traditionally, engineers have aimed at perfecting their machines as machines. This can be seen in the traditional measures of machines: how fast they are, how much they can produce, the quality of their output, how easy they are to use, how much they cost, how long they last.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drumond ◽  
Liberato ◽  
Reboita ◽  
Taschetto

An increasing number of extreme events have been observed around the world over the past few decades, some of them attributed to global warming [...]


Author(s):  
Aboli Mendhe ◽  
Ankit Ghode ◽  
Umesh Jibhakate ◽  
Ritik Chalurkar ◽  
Niraj Bhople ◽  
...  

Since the 21st century, the idea of green constructing has gradually become popular again was launched in many countries, which has become a popular alternative to sustainable development construction industry. Over the past few decades, many scholars and experts have done more research on the green structure. Green construction technology is one of the world’s leading topics set to reduce the major impact of the construction industry on the environment, society and the economy. The world has an urgent need for sustainability and an intelligent development as the problem of pollution and global warming grows rapidly around the world. Major climate change has also been noted and experience globally due to the proliferation of Green House Gases (GHG's). The purpose of this paper is to focus on how sustainable constructing material can help reduce the impact of environmental degradation, and produce healthy buildings that are sustainable for the human being and for our environment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Pyne

Over the past several decades, with the introduction of ecology as a scientific pursuit, China has made advancements in ensuring the health and sustainability of its forests and biodiversity. A very large number of endemic plant and vertebrate species are found in China, plenty of which have value in many areas, including aesthetics and medicine. China’s biodiversity faces many threats, including the invasion of alien species, urbanization and deforestation, as well as global warming. As the monetary value of the products obtained from the many endemic species has been recognized, an increase in environmental awareness has surfaced. Several domestic and international environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) committed to the preservation of China’s forests and wildlife have played an increasing role in educating both the Chinese and the rest of the world. The major issue concerning the preservation of China’s biodiversity is a lack of education in the biological sciences. Increased funding to attract more educated people to work in the Ministry of the Environment, as well as to aid in educating more people is the first logical step.


Author(s):  
Aishwarya Reddy ◽  
Arvind Mukundan

The diminishing condition of the marine ecology worldwide, is corroboration to a weak planning of coastal and ocean ecosystems. Therefore, a comprehensive knowledge of the spatial distribution of all the sustainable activities is necessary. Spatial planning is a necessity in many parts of the world for terrestrial environment usage. A Marine Spatial Planning is also based on the same foundation principles as terrestrial planning but with regard to the marine ecosystem. An MSP identifies the important areas of the ocean and puts forward a plan that is sustainable and accepted in harmony. This strategy does not harm the biodiversity in any way and the stakeholders can still use the resources of the ocean without destruction. This article discusses the extremities caused by global warming, anthropological threats that are in need of utmost attention and spatial planning along with its aims, importance and its benefits. Finally, it summarizes with examples from the past and provides with the steps that need to be taken in case an obstacle arises.


Plant Disease ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 92 (12) ◽  
pp. 1635-1642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika X. Briceño ◽  
Bernardo A. Latorre

Cladosporium rot (Cladosporium spp.) of grapevine (Vitis vinifera) is a common disease in Chile, particularly in Cabernet Sauvignon and other red wine grape cultivars. It is favored by delayed harvest to obtain the phenolic maturity necessary for high-quality red wine. This study expands on previous investigations of the specific causal agents, the histopathological host:pathogen relationship, and the population dynamics of Cladosporium spp. during the seasonal development of grape clusters. Over 100 isolates were obtained and identified as C. cladosporioides and C. herbarum, confirming previous results. The identity of a subset of isolates was confirmed by molecular analysis. Isolates of both C. cladosporioides and C. herbarum from grapevines were pathogenic on inoculated table grapes and wine grapes. These pathogens were reisolated, fulfilling Koch's postulates. Berry injuries and total soluble solids content above 15% were necessary for Cladosporium spp. to infect wine grapes. The mycelia of C. cladosporioides and C. herbarum grew between 0 and 30°C, but no growth was obtained at 35°C in vitro. The histological studies showed that Cladosporium spp. superficially colonize mature V. vinifera berries, invading the epidermis but scarcely penetrating the hypodermis. The Cladosporium populations obtained on apparently healthy berries of V. vinifera cvs. Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay were significantly larger (P = 0.05) than the populations obtained under similar conditions on berries of V. champini cv. Ramsey and hybrids Kober 5BB and Couderc 1613. Considering the importance of Cladosporium rot in Chile compared with other grape production areas, the development of control strategies is needed to prevent high disease severity, which affects both yield and wine quality.


KronoScope ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-211
Author(s):  
Jilt Jorritsma

Abstract Around the world, the rise of temperatures due to global warming is revealing and exposing forgotten traces of the past that are still scored somewhere in the physical terrain. This paper suggests that the transformative landscapes of the Anthropocene not only confront our present world with a ruined and unprecedented future; they also draw our attention to suppressed and stowed-away memories and geographies from the past. By examining imaginaries of sustainable futures in Mexico City, New York and Amsterdam, it will be shown that site-specific ruins and traces of past realities have an evocative potential: they are used to imagine alternative historical trajectories and indicate possible alternative futures that challenge the absoluteness of our present world. The underlying temporality in these imaginaries is one in which the future is portended as a return of a past: there lies a future in these ruins.


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