© Provided by Huffington Post Climate change deniers need to wake up and feel the heat, because global warming is affecting something very important: wine.
According to new analysis, increased summer temperatures in the Mediterranean are slowing the production of wine, threatening (delicious) supplies from hotter countries.
It’s all because workers are struggling to maintain productivity levels under the sun.
“Given the increase in environmental temperature during the past five millennia in regions such as the Mediterranean, the workers who currently pick the grapes carry out their jobs under adverse environmental conditions,” the study reads.
“In Cyprus, for instance, the mean maximum temperature in August (the main part of the harvest season) is around 36°C. These working conditions would be considered a heat-wave in central European countries such as Germany.”
The researchers analysed the productivity levels of manual grape-picking workers in Cyprus to study the impact of heat on labour output.
They followed the workers at different times of the year to see if temperature made a difference.
During the summer when temperatures often reached 36°C, a significant labour loss of up to 27% was recorded.
The researchers put this down to increased perceived exertion on worker’s metabolic and cardiovascular systems, resulting in reduced output.
During hotter months, there was also a 15% decrease in the amount of time workers were able to carry out their duties due to the increased need for irregular and unplanned work breaks.
With the wine industry comprising of 0.2% of world GDP, increased temperatures from global warming may negatively impact the industry and even potentially result in large losses worldwide, they said.
For this study, the authors specifically chose to study grape-picking workers, as the production of wine is still largely dominated by manual labour unlike other industries and therefore the effects of global warming on workers in this industry is highly likely to more prevalent.
The authors warned that this research should not be considered an exhaustive large scale study of the impact of global warming on agriculture workers, and broader studies involving more workers and different locations should be undertaken in order to full assess the full impact.
The research is published in full in the journal Temperature.
Related: This 100-year-old woman says drinking wine is the key to a long life (provided by Hello Giggles)
Replay Video
UP NEXT
-
Selena Gomez may have just dropped her sexiest song yet, and people can’t handle it
After relentlessly teasing the song, Selena Gomez has finally released “Fetish,” and it might just be her sexiest song yet. We first got a teaser of the track at the end of the singer’s “Bad Liar” video, and since then she’s been teasing the song on
Hello Giggles
-
Serena Williams tried to deposit her first $1 million check at a bank drive-thru, which is hilariously unrelatable
Those who dream of making big money one day likely have plans for the cash, like shopping sprees, investments, nice homes or paying off school loans. Whenever that huge payday comes, we doubt most would be as chill as Serena Williams, who tried to d
-
Lily James’ modern Victorian dress looks comfy af — and here’s where you can get one like it
The romantic feel of the Victorian era is hard to compete with. Lily wore a stunning, white button-up dress with a just the perfect amount of Victorian romance. She looked both relaxed and classic, and now we totally want to steal her look. We love
UP NEXT
