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Bordeaux winemakers look to abandon vineyards as climate change bites: Up to 5k hectares of vineyard area in France’s Bordeaux could be converted to other uses as farmers are deciding to either shut down production or change up the crops they’re cultivating, according to local authorities’ data from early June and July this year, CNBC reports. Aside from climate change, exports of Bordeaux and other wines have dropped by 5% y-o-y as consumers are opting for lighter wines and beers, according to data from Statista, cited by CNBC.
What’s a disaster for some comes with benefits for others: In recent years, winemakers have had to cope with more extreme weather phenomena such as hailstorms, frosts, and droughts, explains Sylvie Courselle, an agricultural engineer and enologist. Water for irrigation is also harder to get which is a major threat to the region’s wine industry, she adds. However, winemakers in colder parts of the world are getting a revival: German winemakers are benefiting from the warmer temperatures, as do the English, with production surging in 2018 and only weakening gradually in the years after.
China’s chokehold on rare earths could disrupt supply chains: China’s near-monopoly on the production and processing of rare earth metals has made the US and other countries vulnerable to supply chain disruptions and price shocks, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai told CNBC. China had taken this step with Japan back in 2010, when it limited its exports of rare earths to the Pacific nation causing prices to skyrocket and the nation struggling to meet its needs, according to Reuters.
Rare earth metals are essential for a wide range of high-tech products, including electric car motors, wind turbines, and smartphones. China’s dominance in this market gives it significant leverage over its trading partners as it did with Japan. “What I want to draw your attention to is not just the vulnerabilities around China’s investments [overseas], but the fact that China’s dominant position in the world market now in [rare earths] means that it is able to turn on the faucet and turn off the faucet,” Tai told CNBC.
