Friday, November 07, 2003

We should just stay drunk
According to a report presented this week at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America as reported in Scientific American, global warming gets a lot of the credit for better and more consistent wine vintages over the last half century.
Gregory Jones of Southern Oregon University and his colleagues analyzed data from 27 of the top wine-producing regions worldwide from the last 50 years …. Overall, they found an average temperature increase of two degrees Celsius for the wine regions and higher vintage ratings for their products. "There were no negative impacts," Jones notes.

No negative impacts for the wine industry, he means. In the future, as we paddle through our malaria-ridden, flooded costal cities and try to feed ourselves on the produce of dried out continental interiors, we will have the consolation of washing down our dinner of starling-on-a-stick with a really fine Pinot Gris. I suppose there are worse futures that we could look forward to.

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