By Aliya Couillard, Staff Writer
The climate crisis is a major problem in the world that is contributed to by a multitude of human actions. Many things are affecting and are affected by the climate crisis. One of these that is both affected by and affecting the climate crisis is wine. Recent studies have brought this to attention. This means farming and production add to greenhouse gas emissions which lead to warming the planet, as well the warming temperature affect how the grapes are harvested and how the wine tastes from different regions.
Wine making has been around for many centuries, archeologists suggest wine production has been around since about 6000 to 4000 B.C.. It is a drink that is known around the world, offered in multiple places of business, and where people come together in places such as vineyards where the wine is the main event of the outing. However, although it is widely known and consumed does not take away from the facts that it is being changed and changing the environment.
The grapes from wine are being affected by the changing climate. Regions that grapes are grown in are seeing a more drastic version of their usual climate. This means dry is drier and wet is wetter. This weather leads to changing the quality of the grapes, changing the taste, acidity, and sugars in the wine. This changes the harvest time of grapes that have thrown off vineyard businesses. Also the regions in which grapes can be grown are becoming smaller because of the heightened weather because of droughts such as in California. This leads to vineyards and wine production having to change what they have been doing to produce wine for centuries to fit into this new climate.
However on the other side of this story, the climate is being affected by how they produce wine. Although vineyards are not a very large threat in comparison with other factors that lead to climate change, they are still adding to the issue. This is due to all of the products and elements that go into producing wine.
Vineyards need water to grow their grapes, the amount depends on the region of where wine is produced. According to the wine economist website water intake for wine can go from 75 gallons of water for one gallon of wine up to 430 gallons of water for one gallon of wine depending on the dryness of the area.
Pesticides are also used in producing wine, they are used to ensure no pest gets into the grapes and vines causing damage, as well pesticides help with ensuring the grapes do not have fungal diseases which would make the grapes unusable. However, pesticides are proven to have harmful effects as well. These include pesticides going into runoff from the area which can lead to body’s of water that will then be contaminated with these pesticides that are harmful to the ecosystems within them. Pesticides can also lead to contaminating the soil, which also affects ecosystems and other crops. They also add to greenhouse gas emissions, which trap heat in the atmosphere causing the planet and climate to warm.
Graduate student Shannon Broere believes vineyards should stop the use of peptides stating “I am sure they help kill bugs, but so do other less harmful, organic options. Protecting the surrounding water, land and communities should be more important than cutting costs by using cheap chemicals.”
The carbon emissions from the products vineyards use are also adding to claim the change. These include things such as the fuel used for the machines used to harvest the grapes, as well as the aforementioned pesticides. However one of the biggest contributors is in the packaging. In producing new, not recycled, wine bottles they have to obtain the raw materials, such as sand, soda ash and limestone which are melted at high temperatures. Harvesting limestone can cause habitat loss and pollution. The process of creating new glass for the wine bottles also releases greenhouse gases from the high temperature of which raw materials are melted and releases the carbon dioxide within them.
Broere also thinks vineyards would help benefit the environment if they used a different packing. She states “Perhaps vineyards could start by reusing bottles rather than creating a demand for more bottle production. I think this could work on smaller scale vineyards best, they could use a sort of recycling program or incentive for consumers to give in bottles for a discounted price on another bottle.”
Graduate Student James Dugan shares thoughts that vineyards could use more environmentally friendly ways. He states “I believe vineyards could find ways to still thrive while caring for the earth, such as using machines that are green energy rather than fueled, and use collected rainwater for the majority of their grapes. All of this could be done and benefit their business by displaying this to the public and sharing the idea with other vineyards.”
Overall, vineyards have an effect on the earth as well as affecting the earth. However, only the future can show what this means for wine production and vineyards business. From there it will be seen how things have to change in order for them to continue.
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