Climate change in New Zealand - is there any?
Is there real evidence that global warming is effecting grape growing across the world?
A from New Zealand finds that, if there is any changes, they are not making any impact in New Zealand. The head of the New Zealand grape research body, Dr Alan Limmer, suggests that there is “no reason to believe growing conditions will alter beyond past experiences for the New Zealand wine industry”
“What this demonstrates is the danger of over-emphasising computer modelling at the expense of actual observations,” said Dr Limmer who has published in the most recent issue of industry magazine New Zealand WineGrower the climatic data of his last 17 vintages. “If we are to believe what we’re being told about global warming, my harvest dates should have been getting earlier, but they haven’t.”
The atmospheric changes brought about by the eruption of Mt Pinatubo are clearly detectable as are the warmer growing conditions in 1998 and 1999 due to the El Nino effect but harvest dates are later in recent years than they were in the 1980’s.
“Primary industries such as ours have to learn to cope with significant climatic variations that have always naturally occurred. Computer projections of future climate are just that - projections , based on some ‘best guess’ and ‘what if’ scenarios, but cannot and should not be taken as firm predictions”.
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