Reuters reports in “Record-early champagne harvest highlights climate change impact on French vineyards” that this year’s record-early Champagne grape harvest demonstrates the impact of climate change on French vineyards and signals a troubling future for the region’s wine industry. This is misleading. The best available evidence suggests the article mistakes one season’s unusual weather for long-term climate change and presents normal agricultural variability as proof of a climate trend.
One of the oldest rules in climatology is that weather is not climate. Yet Reuters ignores that distinction almost immediately.
