Climate Change Benefits Some

I just met a woman from Belgium who told me that their traditional cloudy and cool summers have been replaced by climate that most people consider to be more conducive to summer fun: sunny and hot.  And, of course, at those latitudes, daylight lasts until almost midnight.  Sounds like good times for all.

The result of global warming will be catastrophic on average, but not for everyone.  If you grow wheat in Western Canada, you’re in great shape.

To take another example, think for a moment of the wine business, where the traditional regions are rapidly falling apart in terms of their capacity to support the highest end of viticulture.  Note, in particular, that the Champagne region of France, after centuries, appears to be on its way out due to extreme summer temperatures.

Maybe you have real estate in areas that, in the past, were too cold that are now perfectly suitable to the next 50 years of grape-growing.  You’re in great shape.

This is where the Mondavi family finds itself.  Robert, with his $400 million wine business, also manages his father’s $600 million estate.  They’re in the process of selling the combined $1 billion in assets on the basis that climate change will, over as short a window as the next 8 – 10 years, make it impossible for them to make wine that’s worth anywhere close to the $700/bottle price that have made them among the world’s most wealthy.

They’re buying up huge swaths of land in stable and more temperate climates, mainly along the shores of many of the Mediterranean islands, which are protected from soaring temperatures due to the heat sinks of the sea.

I recently ran into an extremely wealthy woman who had attended a seminar in which Robert Mondavi explained his plans to a small group of the financially elite, where, predictably, there were a few from the extreme right wing who kicked back that climate change was a hoax, foisted on the world by the Chinese to destroy American capitalism.

According to the story the woman told me, he responded, “My dad and I favor science over Fox News, or whatever information source you may believe.  We’re doing what we think is best with our fortune.  You, of course, are at liberty to do what you wish with yours.”