El Niño Spurs Crop Failures Worldwide as 50 Million More Risk Acute Hunger
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 17
El Niño Spurs Crop Failures Worldwide as 50 Million More Risk Acute Hunger
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 17
Summary
Scientists say this year’s El Niño is already unusually powerful months before its typical December peak, driving heat, droughts and crop losses across multiple regions.
Nearly 80 years of records suggest the current cycle is on track to be the strongest in that span, adding to already elevated global temperatures and amplifying weather extremes worsened by climate change.
Panama has gone without a major storm since early May, threatening rain-fed Panama Canal operations, while Ethiopia is enduring one of its driest summers in four decades and Kenya’s maize harvest has slumped.
India logged its fifth-driest June since modern records began in 1901, underscoring how the Pacific warming is disrupting weather from Central America to the Horn of Africa.
The U.N. World Food Program says El Niño could push an additional 50 million people into acute hunger by the end of next year, even as scientists still debate whether human emissions are making such events stronger and more frequent.