Food
Climate change may not be a disaster for everyone, everywhere on Earth. As the climate warms, seasonal patterns and conditions will change with varying affects throughout the planet. Of particular concern is how climate change will affect agricultural production. One concrete illustration of how climate change is changing how we grow food (and drink) is a look at European wine production, as reported in Environment 360 put out by Yale University.
Few products are more sensitive to changes in temperature than wine. So the rising temperatures and associated with climate change are already reshaping the industry. Production as a whole is moving north (or south in the southern hemisphere) as opportunities open up in once-inhospitable areas. Meanwhile, vineyards in warmer climates are facing mounting problems as it gets hotter. Assuming projections of much hotter world prove true in the next 50 to 100 years, many winemakers will be forced to change their signature products, move, or go under. Many will go under no matter what they do.
Now, while the loss of DOC distinctions may not have the residents of the Maldives losing sleep, it does illustrate some of the early affects climate change will have in the world. These changes will soon expand beyond viticulture and they may be of greater consequence than a shift of the growing area of our favorite wine grape. Our reluctance to change is one of the prime factors in our addressing the causes of climate change. Well, changes are coming. We can see them. We can measure them. Our lives will change. The choice we have it whether we want to be the agent or the object of that change.