.

The amount of Northern California land ripe for premium grape-growing (yes… I’m aware of the pun) could be reduced by 50% in the next 30 years. Not only that, researchers say their findings are conservative, since they’re assuming temperatures will only rise by 2 degrees Fahrenheit over the next few decades.

Yet another reason, ladies and gentlemen, that I am a beer drinker. Plus beer advertising is a lot funnier.

Information about the research from Stanford University.

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CONTEST RESULTS!

Thanks to everyone who entered. The winners appear in today’s strip. John Sterman took time out from his duties at MIT to appear with Bebbo and Kito at the wine tasting. Professor Sterman chose Kito as his favorite character. Animal behaviorist/ herpetologist Rosemary Lombard has taken a brief haitus from work exploring turtle cognition to appear alongside her favorite character, Bebbo. I was also able to give a nod to entrant Teresa Kolo by mentioning gopher snakes — the reptile she was holding in her submitted photo. I am not a caricaturist by trade, so I hope our winners find my attempts at a likeness unobjectionable.

Unfortunately for Bebbo, the overwhelming majority of votes went for Kito, although entrant David Cox offered a write-in vote for the orange horse that makes occasional appearances in the strip.

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CAN’T GET ENOUGH WHAT ON EARTH?…

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Interview: Katie Kline, Communications Officer at Ecological Society of America interviewed me via Skype for the ESA’s Ecotone blog. Read and hear it here.

Video: Bebbo and Kito were featured in one of Jim Parks’ terrific Today’s Green Minute episodes. See the video! Learn more about it.