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Climate Changed: Ontario wine producers seek solutions to extreme weather threats

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Climate Changed: Ontario wine producers seek solutions to extreme weather threats

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. — One extremely cold day last winter was all it took to cause widespread damage to Bill Redelmeier’s wine crops.

Months later, the destruction was in full sight at Southbrook Vineyards, an organic winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.

Vine shoots were growing shorter than they would in a typical year if they were growing at all. Black netting used to protect the vines hadn’t been rolled down on several rows considered too spoiled to save. Some leaves were already turning brown, while the grapes on plants that did produce fruit showed damage in their consistency and colour.

They’re all signs of vascular injury inside the plants stemming from the mid-January cold snap — which was catastrophic not just for Redelmeier, but for grape growers across Niagara Region’s wine country in southern Ontario.

“It takes an hour. That’s all the time it takes,” Redelmeier said as he surveyed the vineyard in September.

The freezing event that Redelmeier estimated has reduced his winery’s output by 75 percent this year, and likely 50 percent next year, is one example of extremes in weather that Ontario’s wine producers are contending with amid a changing climate.

Redelmeier described the phenomenon as “wild swings” in weather that farmers are struggling to predict and prepare for.

“We assume that everything that’s going to happen is somewhere in our memory. We’re now getting stuff that’s outside of our experience,” he said.

Crop loss from the cold snap forced adjustments for Redelmeier’s business and other competitors in the area. With only so much wine available last summer, Southbrook had to choose whether to cut back on selling to the LCBO — the Crown corporation that distributes liquor in the province — and other large retailers or to their own customers. They decided to focus on sales to their loyal base.

Extreme cold may not immediately come to mind when it comes to the effects of climate change — a conversation that often centres on increases in temperature. But experts and industry stakeholders say extreme, unpredictable swings in weather are having a big effect on Ontario’s wine industry and forcing producers to respond with costly pivots.

“Ontario is no different than anywhere else in the world. When we look at climate change, probably the biggest effect that we’re going to see is the extremes in weather,” said Brock University grapevine biologist Jim Willwerth.

Climate change is challenging grape growers around the world with extreme weather ranging from hail to drought to smoke from forest fires. Cold winters are nothing new to grape growers in Ontario, Willwerth said, but the low temperatures that hit last winter followed a period of relatively milder days and an unusually rainy fall season. That meant the sensitive grape plants weren’t able to build up the cold tolerance they need to survive the winter, he explained.

All farmers are coming up against increasingly extreme weather events, but Willwerth noted that grapes are particularly sensitive because slight changes in climate can affect flavour.

“Grapes might be the canary in the coal mine when it comes to climate change,” he said.

Ontario winemakers have options when it comes to mitigating weather extremes, though they are expensive.

Some use a technology called geotextiles, covering the vines with what is essentially a blanket to warm the crops during intense cold periods.

Others use wind machines – a technology that warms the air around the crops during extreme cold to protect from the most severe damage.

For Redelmeier, wind machines are a better option for his wallet given the layout and specific needs of his vineyard. Noisy, skinny windmills were slowly turning between the vines at Southbrook this September.

Redelmeier estimates the costly technology keeps temperatures slightly warmer than -25 C, and likely saved many of the plants from permanent damage that would have required ripping them out and replanting.

“It could have been much worse,” he said.

Some growers, meanwhile, are faced with geographic challenges to the available technologies.

Ed Madronich of Flat Rock Cellars in Jordan Station, Ont., west of St. Catharines, also saw damage to crops during last year’s extreme cold. He’s considering investing in geotextiles, but wind machines aren’t an effective option at his vineyard due to the sloping layout.

Other efforts aimed at mitigating extreme weather swings like building up inventory to prepare for unexpected weather-related setbacks all add up to significant business costs, Madronich said.

“Climate change is definitely having an impact, and it is costing farmers more money to be able to mitigate the challenges that climate change is putting on us,” Madronich said by phone.

Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute, where Willwerth and other experts conduct research relevant to Canada’s wine industry, has studied the economic impact of severe weather on Ontario wineries. A study from 2014 ran a scenario that determined vine loss from a cold event would result in $55.7 million in losses to grape growers over five years, including lost sales and the cost of renewing and replacing vines.

Invasive pests migrating further north as the climate warms also pose a threat to Ontario vineyards, Willwerth said, pointing to the spotted lanternfly as an example. The species, which is known to feed in huge numbers on grapevines, has been challenging wine producers in the United States, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recently asked people to report sightings of the insect after it was seen near the Canadian border.

Debbie Zimmerman of the Grape Growers of Ontario said there is some money available from federal and provincial governments to help farmers rebound from weather damage. But she said more support is needed given the challenges being posed by climate change, including support for adaptation research that’s already underway.

“This is not going away,” she said of the weather extremes. “We’re doing our part trying to prepare for the future. It’s the support that we need, financially, from the government to help us get through these challenges.”

Back at Southbrook, Redelmeier tastes a 2019 Merlot from his vineyard. The red wine variety won’t be produced in 2022 due to the extensive damage to the vineyard.

It’s one example of how wine, a product tied to the earth at the specific time and place it was produced, can tell the story of climate change, Redelmeier said.

“It’s time in a bottle,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2022.

 

Holly McKenzie-Sutter, The Canadian Press

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Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions

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GENEVA (AP) — Lebanon filed a complaint against Israel at the U.N.’s labor organization over the string of deadly attacks involving exploding pagers, saying workers were among those killed and injured, a Lebanese government minister said Wednesday.

The wave of remotely triggered explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies carried by Hezbollah members in mid-September were widely blamed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement. The blasts which went off in grocery stores, homes and on streets killed at least 37 people, including two children, and wounded around 3,000 people, according to Lebanese authorities, deeply unsettling even Lebanese who have no Hezbollah affiliation.

In addition to fighters, the detonating devices hit workers in Hezbollah’s civilian institutions, including its health care and media operations.

Lebanese Labor Minister Moustafa Bayram and other officials said he traveled to Geneva and formally filed the complaint Tuesday against Israel at the International Labor Organization, a sprawling U.N. agency that brings together governments, businesses and workers.

“This method of warfare and conflicts may open the way for many who are evading international humanitarian law to adopt this method of warfare,” he told reporters at the U.N. compound in Geneva.

“It’s a very dangerous precedent, if not condemned,” he said. “We are in a situation where ordinary objects — objects used in daily life — become dangerous and lethal.”

Speaking in Arabic, Bayram insisted that ILO conventions guarantee the safety and security of workers, who “were in their workplace and had their pagers or walkies-talkies exploding all of a sudden,” according to an interpreter.

“I do not know where the outcome (of the complaint) will go, but at least we raised our voices to say and warn against this dangerous approach that strikes at human relations and leads to more conflicts,” he added.

An ILO spokeswoman said she was not immediately aware of the complaint or what redress might be possible through it.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Tesla shares soar more than 14% as Trump win is seen boosting Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company

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NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.

“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”

Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.

Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.

Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.

In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.

The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.

Tesla began selling the software, which is called “Full Self-Driving,” nine years ago. But there are doubts about its reliability.

The stock is now showing a 16.1% gain for the year after rising the past two days.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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China is bracing for fresh tensions with Trump over trade, tech and Taiwan

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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The first time China faced Donald Trump in the White House, there was a trade war, a breach of protocol involving Taiwan’s former leader, and a president-to-president bromance that turned sour.

As President-elect Trump prepares to start his second term in office, China is bracing for unpredictability in its ties with the United States and renewed tensions over trade, technology and Taiwan.

A new tariff war looms

Perhaps the biggest consequence for China — if Trump stays true to his campaign promises — is his threat to slap blanket 60% tariffs on all Chinese exports to the U.S.

Tariffs like that would be a blow to China’s already unstable economy, which is suffering from high youth unemployment, a lengthy property slump and government debt. A 60% duty on Chinese imports could shave off 2.5 percentage points, or about half, of China’s projected economic growth, according to an analysis published earlier this year by UBS.

During Trump’s previous term in office, the U.S. imposed tariffs on more than $360 billion of Chinese products. That brought Beijing to the negotiating table, and in 2020 the two sides signed a trade deal in which China committed to improve intellectual property rights and buy an extra $200 billion of American goods. A research group a couple of years later showed China had bought essentially none of the goods it had promised.

President Joe Biden retained most of those tariffs and added fresh duties this year on imports including steel, solar cells and electric vehicles.

Like last time, tariffs could serve as a tool to force Beijing back to the negotiating table, said Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore Management University who focuses on international trade.

“Given the weak economic position of China this time, I think there will be more willingness to talk,” he said. “Thus, while the tariff might have some short-term effects on the Chinese economy, the situation might improve once they reach a deal.”

Factoring into the trade talks could be Trump’s appeals to Chinese President Xi Jinping to help negotiate a resolution to the Ukraine war, which Trump has boasted he’ll be able to do quickly, without saying how.

Trump previously sought Xi’s help in dealing with North Korea’s rogue leader Kim Jong Un. That dynamic could repeat itself, with Trump weighing trade grievances against seeking China’s support in global crises, according to Wang Huiyao, founder of the Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization.

“China is the largest trading partner of both Russia and Ukraine,” Wang wrote in a recent commentary. “These close economic ties give China a unique opportunity to play a greater role in peace-making efforts.”

Willing to go ‘crazy’ over Taiwan

There is one scenario in which Trump has threatened to impose even higher tariffs — 150% to 200% — on Chinese goods: if China invades Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that Beijing claims as its own.

The U.S. does not recognize Taiwan as a country, but is its strongest backer and biggest arms provider.

Trump angered Beijing in December 2016 by taking a congratulatory call from Taiwan’s then-president Tsai Ing-wen in a breach of diplomatic protocol. No U.S. president had spoken directly to a Taiwanese leader since Washington and Beijing established ties in 1979.

Trump’s move created anxiety in China-watching circles, but ultimately, he stuck to supporting the status quo in relations between Taipei and Beijing.

China expects him to continue to do so, said Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Relations at Nanjing University.

“Will (he) want to turn to support Taiwan independence? It is unlikely,” he said.

As for China’s repeated threats to annex Taiwan, Trump told The Wall Street Journal last month that he would not have to use military force to prevent a blockade of Taiwan because Xi “respects me and he knows I’m (expletive) crazy.”

On the campaign trail, Trump sometimes talked up his personal connection with Xi, which started exuberantly during his first term but soured over disputes about trade and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Trump has also said that Taiwan should pay the U.S. for defending it against China, likening the relationship to insurance. Taiwan spends about 2.5% of its GDP on defense, and purchased hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of U.S. weapons this year.

Trump has purposely maintained a sense of uncertainty in his relationship with China, said Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

“We are clear about the challenges,” he said. “As for opportunities, we are yet to see them clearly.”

Disputes over chips

During his first term, Trump began targeting Chinese technology firms over security concerns, focusing on large companies like the telecoms giant Huawei. Biden continued in that direction by placing curbs on China’s access to advanced semiconductors, which are needed to develop strategic industries such as artificial intelligence.

But Trump has criticized Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, a bipartisan bill that earmarked $53 billion to build up domestic manufacturing of semiconductors. Currently, Taiwan produces nearly 90% of the world’s supply of the most advanced chips.

The island’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, TSMC, expanded production in Arizona, partly to respond to the CHIPS Act, and to be prepared to withstand any other protectionist policies in the U.S., said Shihoko Goto, director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the Wilson Center.

Trump has promised to do away with the CHIPS Act, though critics say that would undermine his campaign to reindustrialize the U.S. The president-elect has also accused Taiwan of “stealing” the chip industry from the U.S. decades ago.

“Rather than providing a silicon shield, Taiwan’s dominance in the chip industry could actually be the source of tension between Taipei and Trump, as Taiwan’s successes in the chip sector may be seen as having only been possible as a result of the United States being taken advantage of,” Goto said.



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