The Advertiser
By: Shane Wakelin, presenter for Al Gore's Climate Project
Some of my most treasured memories of growing up in South Australia come from times spent in the world-renowned wine regions. The Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and the Coonawarra region have been the setting for many happy times as a child and, more recently, as places to enjoy good food and great wine with family and friends.
So, it is with a heavy heart that I think about how climate change could devastate these special places. It gets me wondering whether my children will be able to enjoy them as I have.
Finding out about climate change, through my involvement with the Australian Conservation Foundation and as a presenter for Al Gore's Climate Project, has brought home to me the reality of how these incredible places, the backdrop of my childhood, could be changed forever.
Climate change, through hotter temperatures, rising sea levels and reduced rainfall, has the potential to dramatically alter our way of life: socially, economically and environmentally.
Climate change threatens the size and quality of South Australia's wine industry, along with livelihoods in wine growing regions. Changes in growing and fruiting seasons, increased costs as pests, weeds and diseases spread under rapidly changing conditions and less rain will all affect growers' ability to produce the quality of grape renowned around the world.
Some regions may become too warm to produce well-balanced wines. And, as The Advertiser recently reported, we could taste the difference at our dinner tables with wine quality tainted by smoke, caused by more frequent bushfires.
What will these changes mean for the wine tourism industry, worth about $500 million annually to the state's economy? Without doubt, the success of the wine industry rests in large part on the health and beauty of our premium wine growing landscapes.
Then there's the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia's food bowl. The current drought is making things hard enough for our farmers in the basin. How will they, and the $15 billion agricultural industry, cope when droughts become more severe and frequent?
Even football, the lifeblood of many Australian towns and communities, and a game from which I have been lucky enough to earn a living, is not immune from the impacts of climate change. I've no doubt there are a number of nervous footy clubs wondering how their ovals are going to shape up next year with water becoming even more scarce. Without strong action, the effects of climate change could destroy SA's unique social and economic fabric.
Thankfully, there is a solution. The world's top climate scientists say developed countries like Australia will need to cut their carbon emissions by at least 25 to 40 per cent by 2020 if we are to have a chance of avoiding dangerous levels of climate change.
Australia's best economists tell us this is achievable and affordable through solutions like investing in more renewable energy, and that it will create huge job opportunities.
We can give our wine regions, as well as the Great Barrier Reef, the bush, our beaches and thousands of other special places, a fighting chance by leading by example and setting a strong 2020 target to ensure the world comes to an effective global agreement.
The next round of international climate negotiations started this week in Poland. It's crucial that Australia goes in to bat for our icons at these talks. Great SA family occasions consist simply of family, food and top wines from our state.
Let's keep it that way by being a leader on climate change and making sure our kids can enjoy our special places as we have, not just hear of them in yarns told by their parents reminiscing about times gone by.
* Shane Wakelin, a South Australian and former Collingwood footballer, is a presenter for Al Gore's Climate Project.