A third of this year’s French wine crop has reportedly been lost to a late season frost. Wine growers resorted to burning fossil fuel to save their plants.

Third of French wine lost after rare cold snaps devastate vines

Unseasonal frost is ‘agricultural disaster of 21st century’ as ice after warm weather decimates grape harvests

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
@achrisafis
Fri 16 Apr 2021 02.53 AEST

At least a third of French wine production worth almost €2bn (£1.7bn) in sales will be lost this year after rare freezing temperatures devastated many vines and fruit crops across France, raising concerns over the climate crisis.

“This is probably the greatest agricultural catastrophe of the beginning of the 21st century,” the French agriculture minister, Julien Denormandie, said this week as the government declared an “agricultural disaster” and began preparing emergency financial measures.

The unseasonal wave of bitter frost and ice hit suddenly after a bout of warm weather, which worsened the damage. The warmth had encouraged vines and fruit trees to develop earlier than usual, only to be withered by the sudden cold.

The national federation of agricultural holders’ unions told AFP it believes at least a third of French wine production would be lost as certain grape harvests in many of France’s best-known wine-producing regions risked being decimated.

…Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/apr/15/agricultural-disaster-two-billion-worth-of-french-wine-production-lost-after-cold-snaps

President Macron tweeted a picture of farmers burning thousands of gallons of kerosene, to try to prevent global warming from killing more of their grapes. No news yet on whether President Macron will offer relief from French global warming taxes, on fossil fuel burned to hold back the intense cold.

À vous, agriculteurs qui, partout en France, avez lutté sans relâche, nuit après nuit, pour protéger les fruits de votre travail, je veux vous dire notre soutien plein et entier dans ce combat. Tenez bon ! Nous sommes à vos côtés et le resterons. pic.twitter.com/uaW9TmPxYh— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 10, 2021

Perhaps the coming shortage of 2021 season French wine is what the WMO was thinking about, when they said the impacts of the climate crisis are already too costly for the world to afford. Let us hope the world wakes up and addresses global warming, before we all freeze to death.

This article appeared on the Watts Up With That? website at https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/20/global-warming-devastating-frost-impacts-2021-french-wine-grapes/