Miguel Torres is 81 years old and his head is very well furnished. That is why he has been preaching against the dangers of climate change; because he knows that this is serious and that the heat is the main threat to the vineyard. Fourth generation viticulturist and winemaker, long ago opted to buy land in areas higher than usual -therefore colder- and not only preaches, but also acts: 10% of the annual benefits of Torres Wineries is invested in mitigating the global warming. From the use of photovoltaic plants to the capture of COtwo that is generated in the fermentation of the grape. The results do not represent any magic wand to solve a huge problem, but they do trade on another stock market: the commitment to the health of the planet.
The Torres patriarch confessed to me the other day, with a touch of disappointment, that the idea of creating a network of wineries to curb the effects of climate change had not been successful in Spain; he has had to look for travel companions in other parts of the world, such as the United States or New Zealand. His head clicked with Al Gore’s documentary, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, who in 2008 was already drawing a devastating portrait of the Earth. Since then there have been 12 world summits like the one that just ended in Egypt, with minuscule progress; scientists have shouted their heads off warning that if we don’t change, we are headed for disaster; and at the same time the denialist story has gained ground, giving nature letter to stupidities like that of “climate change has always been & rdquor; (Ayuso ‘dixit’). So the outlook is not very rosy. That is why it would be good to disseminate the reflections of an octogenarian, whom no one can accuse of being hysterical or a puppet, like poor Greta Thunberg. He insists that the vineyard resembles the canaries that were placed in the mine to detect when there was a risk of a firedamp explosion. If the canary stopped singing, you had to get out by legs. I fear that our canary already her voice begins to fail.