The sun shines on vineyards above the village of Viviers sur Artaut in the Champagne region of France. Could global warming impact the types of grapes grown there? Julian Elliott / robertharding/Getty Images
Could global climate change put an end to the centuries-old French wine industry? Affects on the vineyards might not be catastrophic today, but a new study published in Nature Climate Change suggests climate change is definitely making its mark on how French wine is produced. The wine industry is so closely connected to what s happening with climate change, says the study s lead author Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist at Columbia University s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and NASA s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. We focused on France because they ve been making wine for centuries and have records going back 400 years.