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Why is this El Niño phenomenon being cast as something much larger and more terrifying? Isn’t it a temporary phenomenon?
by camdenlock 3y ago
Why is this El Niño phenomenon being cast as something much larger and more terrifying? Isn’t it a temporary phenomenon?
- dredmorbius 3y agoConsider El Niño as a sneak preview. What El Niño events do is bump sea-surface temperatures up by a degree or two. That's equivalent to looking a few decades forward to see what an equivalent whole-globe temperature rise might look like, excepting such issues as general ice-cap melting (Antarctica & Greenland), though including accelerated glacial melting in regions seeing EN warming. But for at least some weather, wildfire, drought, crop-yield, and species-adaptations (both invasive and extinctive) potential, we're getting an early look at what's already in the pipeline. It's also a warning that future EN events, on top of further warming, will likely be much worse.