wine

Sand From Mining Waste | Earth Wise

May 10, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The natural resources people use the most are air and water. It may come as a surprise that in third place is sand. Sand is used to make glass, computer chips, toothpaste, cosmetics, food, wine, paper, paint, plastics, and more. It is estimated that 50 billion tons of sand are used each year.

Concrete is 10% cement, 15% water, and 75% sand. The concrete required to build a house takes on average 200 tons of sand, a hospital uses 3,000 tons, and a mile of a highway requires 15,000 tons.

One would think that there is no shortage of sand, but we are using it up faster than the planet can make it and the extraction of sand from seas, rivers, beaches, and quarries has negative impacts on the environment and surrounding communities. For example, removing sand leads to erosion in riverbanks, significantly increasing the risk of flooding in some places.

A potential strategy to reduce the impact of extracting sand to meet society’s growing need for is also a strategy for helping to reduce the production of mineral mining waste, which is the largest waste stream on the planet. Mining produces between 33 and 66 billion tons of waste material each year.

A new study by researchers in Switzerland and Australia looked at the potential for using mining waste as a source of so-called ore-sand. Sand-like material left over from mining operations could be used for many current applications for sand. Separating and repurposing these materials before they are added to the waste stream would not only reduce the volume of waste being generated by mining operations but would also create a responsible new source of sand.

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Solution to world’s largest waste stream: Make sand

Photo, posted October 22, 2005, courtesy of Alan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Wine And Wildfire Smoke | Earth Wise

September 22, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Rising global temperatures have made droughts and heatwaves more common and intense, leading to larger and more destructive wildfires. In 2020, wildfires in California blackened more than 4 million acres, the largest wildfire season on record. With its continuing drought, California has already had 1.5 million acres burned by wildfires this year, and the fires continue.

Wildfires can cause extensive damage throughout the agricultural industry by destroying crops and killing livestock. But the fires can have a unique effect on the wine industry: wine grapes can be affected by smoke taint.

Vineyards have demonstrated themselves to be good fire breaks. They definitely help prevent the movement of wildfires. But there is no way to stop smoke from the fires from drifting into vineyards. By far, the damage caused by smoke far outweighs direct losses from fires in vineyards.

Winemakers sometimes add subtle smoky notes to their vintages by aging them in toasted oak barrels. But wildfire smoke permeating vineyards – even from distant blazes – can end up making wines undrinkable. Smoke-tainted wines end up having unpleasant aromas that people describe as being like disinfectants or burnt rubber.

With wildfires an increasingly persistent presence in California, the state’s $43 billion wine industry is facing a major challenge. An estimated 165,000 to 325,000 tons of California wine grapes went unharvested last year, adding up to more than $600 million in losses from fire and smoke. The industry will need to figure out ways to detect and manage smoke taint as the problem isn’t going to go away.

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Wildfire Smoke: An Emerging Threat to West Coast Wines

Photo, posted July 25, 2021, courtesy of Felton Davis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Scandinavian Wine

December 20, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The warming climate is creating some unexpected entrepreneurial opportunities. Many places that have traditionally dominated the wine industry are starting to be worried that the local climates that made them ideal for vineyards are changing and becoming much less ideal. On the other hand, places where wine-making was regarded as a losing proposition are becoming much more hospitable. A prime example is Scandinavia.

Nordic vintners are increasingly convinced that they can develop thriving commercial operations in what used to be places that are too cold for successful wine-making.

Denmark now has 90 commercial vineyards, up from just two 15 years ago. Forty vineyards have sprung up in Sweden. About a dozen vineyards are now operating as far north as Norway.

Many of these Nordic vineyards are in the startup stage and are tiny compared with the established wineries of Europe. Europe has 10 million acres of vineyards, which is enough to cover almost the entire country of Denmark. At the moment, there are only about 1,000 acres of vineyards in Denmark and Sweden.

But, looking forward, Scandinavia’s climate is forecast to be more like northern France, as regional temperatures climb as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Over the past decade, warming has produced milder winters, a longer growing season, and even a small but rising number of award-winning Scandinavian wines.

Meanwhile, traditional wine-growing regions are also dealing with climate change. Winemakers in France, for example, are experimenting with grapes from warmer countries like Tunisia to see if they can retain the tastes and yields that are the basis of a multibillion-dollar wine industry. Spanish and Italian winemakers are planting grapes higher up on mountainsides or on shaded north-facing slopes to preserve the quality of their wine.

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