El Niño Poses Risks To Human Life, According To UN WMO

The World Meteorological Organization has announced the onset of a climate-warming El Niño event, emphasizing that planning for severe weather events is crucial.

The new El Niño and the rising global temperature due to human-caused carbon emissions have been labelled a "double whammy" by the World Meteorological Organization. This may amplify already occurring severe weather, and new records for land and sea temperatures are being set all around the world.

According to the WMO, there is a 90% chance that El Niño will persist through the end of 2023 with moderate intensity. In early June, the US government estimated that there was a 56% likelihood of an intense and even hotter El Niño by the end of the year.

The unpredictable transitions between El Niño and its counteracting chilly phase La Niña are caused by natural fluctuations in Pacific airflow and water temperatures. Billions of people all around the world are impacted by this natural climatic event. Southern United States, southern South America, the Horn of Africa, and central Asia are more likely to experience floods as a result of El Niño, whereas eastern Australia, Indonesia, south Asia, and Central America will face extreme heat waves and droughts.

Recent months have set temperature records. A heatwave that slammed British waters was unprecedented, and the month of June saw record-breaking temperatures throughout the nation. Low levels of sea ice have also been recorded near Antarctica.

Instead of an unexpected increase in temperature, scientists claimed this was the crisis in the climate system playing out as they had predicted. El Niño may cause 2023 to break all records for temperature, albeit the real heat wave won't hit until 2024.

According to Petteri Taalas, the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, the start of El Niño would considerably raise the chance of exceeding temperature records and causing more intense heat in many places of the globe and in the ocean.

“The declaration by WMO is the signal to governments around the world to mobilise preparations. Early warnings and anticipatory action of extreme weather events associated with this major climate phenomenon are vital to save lives and livelihoods”, Taalas added.

Global yearly temperatures are projected to surpass pre-industrial values by 1.5C for at least one year by 2027, according to a new analysis by the World Meteorological Organization and the UK Met Office.

As stated by the WMO's director of climate services Chris Hewitt, this is not to indicate that in the next five years we would surpass the 1.5C threshold since it relates to gradual warming over a lengthy period. Still, it serves as a reminder that humanity is not yet headed in the correct direction to restrict temperature rise to within the limits meant to considerably lessen the consequences of climate warming.

source: the guardian.com