… as we know it.

This is the stark reckoning from onehundredmonths.org who’s countdown process and excellent updates I have been following for a few years now.

Beyond this point, there is steadily growing scientific conscensus that if we have not taken sufficient action to curb greenhouse gas emissions within this timeframe there is the very serious possibility of runaway global warming. The resulting rise in temperatures will turn our planet into quite a hostile place for the vast majority of the human race in its current form and locations.

As usual, claim and counter claim continue from both sides of the climate change debate and without being blessed with a crystal ball or DeLorean time machine we have to decide as individuals which side of the debate we stand or else take no notice at all and carry on with our lives as usual.

Given the unpredictability of Mother Nature, who really knows for sure whether one event will counteract another in the future and the human race has shown it can rise to challenges when the need is strong enough. However, looking around us in the year 2012, it’s clear that things are changing. The wettest summer in the UK for 100 years and record levels of ice melt in the arctic are just two events relatively close to home that we have felt the effects of. A very tangible example of which I have discovered this last month in my back garden.

When looking deeper at climate change issues a few years back it seemed that the UK South Coast could benefit from rising temperatures and develop a Mediterranean style climate. In anticipation of this potentially positive side effect I planted a grape vine – not just any vine but an off-cut from the Great Vine at Hampton Court Palace that has provided black dessert grapes to the tables of British royalty since 1769 (well that’s what it said on the label when I bought it from Homebase anyway …).

The vine has grown well since it was planted in 2008 and it now covers the entire trellis, providing the type of spanish/greek style taverna backdrop over the decking area that I was hoping for originally. I didn’t really know what to expect from growing a vine outside of a greenhouse and was pleasantly surprised when it  produced its first grapes in 2009 – black and sweet as per its stated heritage. In 2010, the grape crop was even better, surpassing anything I had imagined it would produce and providing bunches that were kept and eaten well into the autumn.

The wet summer of 2011 looked like ruining the crop for the year but good sunny weather late August and early September ripenned it well, although they resulting grapes were not as large or sweet as the previous year’s crop.

This year has been an utter disaster. As illustrated in the picture below, the grapes are totally underdeveloped and very few have managed to ripen successfully – the handful that have are extremely bitter.

I was commenting to people a month or so back that if the UK’s wine industry’s vine harvests were as poor as mine then it would be a very bad year for them. Unfortunately, reports over the last few weeks have confirmed that this is the case, with a vineyard just along the coast from us saying that it had abandoned this year’s crop altogether and other reports suggesting that problems have been global too.

The climate change models predicted increases in extreme weather events and over the last decade, in our quiet corner of Hampshire, UK, we have experienced record temperatures, record snowfalls and record rainfalls.

The evidence of change is starting to arrive on our own doorsteps but if it means an increase in the price of wine for some, you can be sure it means a great deal more suffering for others 😦