El Nino to have devastating impact on health, food security, economy
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Experts say the phenomenon, combined with human-induced global warming, will have disastrous consequences on the livelihoods of human beings.
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The low water level at the Paso Severino reservoir amid a severe drought in Florida, Uruguay, in June, 2023 (Photo by Eitan ABRAMOVICH / AFP)
AFP reported on Saturday that the El Nino phenomenon -- the climate pattern in which unusually high temperatures are recorded -- is just warming up, experts say, paving the way for further extreme weather events to unfold.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, El Nino began in the month of July.
While the natural warming of temperatures in the Pacific Ocean normally lasts between 9 to 12 months, it is expected to become much stronger by the end of this year.
Experts say the phenomenon, combined with human-induced global warming, will have disastrous consequences on the livelihoods of human beings.
Read more: Heavy rainfalls, flash floods in northern China result in two dead
For instance, diseases. Certain diseases such as malaria and dengue tend to expand in range when temperatures grow warmer.
El Nino can thus exacerbate health issues as climate change fosters the spread of diseases to new regions.
"We can see from previous El Ninos that we get increases and outbreaks of a wide range of vector-borne and other infectious diseases around the tropics, in the area that we know is most affected by El Nino," Madeleine Thomson, head of climate impacts at the Wellcome Trust charity, told journalists on Thursday.
Secondly, heatwaves pose a serious danger to health and can sometimes be "named the silent killer because you don't necessarily see it as a threat," said Gregory Wellenius, head of a climate and health center at Boston University.
"But heatwaves in fact kill more people than any other type of severe weather events."
It is estimated that over 61,000 people have died as a result of heat waves in Europe alone in the summer of 2022 when there was no El Nino.
On July 27, the UN confirmed that July was the hottest month ever recorded in human history.
Read more: Iraq's extreme temperatures should serve as 'wake-up call': UN
El Nino is also cause for concern over food security.
"In an El Nino year, there are countries where the chances of having a bad harvest increase, for example in South and Southeast Asia," said Walter Baethgen of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society.
For instance last month, India had to restrict its exports of rice due to irregular monsoon rains that damaged this year's crops.
The matter has raised the alarm for countries dependent on exports, including Syria and Indonesia, who may be faced with a "triple challenge" during El Nino.
"The rice harvest in those countries may be lower than normal, the rice trade may be more difficult or less accessible in the international market and because of that, the price of rice will be high," said Baethgen.
"This combination of factors pretty rapidly affects the food insecurity problems," he added.
Finally, El Nino may entail some serious economic consequences.
For instance last week, the Panama Canal which is pivotal to global trade had to be restricted due to low rainfall, causing a $200 million drop in earnings.
