Author Archives: Pat Turnbaugh

El Niño may cause global famine, floods and sickness

Experts warn that one of the strongest El Niño patterns in the past 70 years could significantly impact the world’s economy, food supply and weather.

The ongoing phenomenon is expected to continue well into 2016, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, and its impacts go far beyond the forecast.

El Niño occurs when warm waters in the Pacific Ocean move east, which sets off a ripple effect. The warmer waters create conditions ripe for large storms, according to a Los Angeles Times report, and bring unseasonable weather.

The United Nations World Meteorological Organization said last week that this El Niño is already the strongest in the past 15 years and it is expected to continue to strengthen. It is on track to be one of the three strongest instances of the phenomenon in the past 65 years, according to the organization.

“Our planet has altered dramatically because of climate change, the general trend towards a warmer global ocean, the loss of Arctic sea ice and of over a million square kilometers of summer snow cover in the northern hemisphere,” the organization’s secretary general, Michael Jarraud, said at a news conference last week. “So this naturally occurring El Niño event and human induced climate change may interact and modify each other in ways which we have never before experienced.”

The cyclical weather pattern is known for creating intense droughts in some parts of the world and heavy rains in others. Droughts and floods are currently occurring in the tropics and subtropics, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization said at the news conference in Switzerland.

But the organization noted that the world is more prepared to deal with the phenomenon, as the countries expected to be affected the most are already planning for its impacts on their agriculture, health and economies.

Still, CNBC noted that the weather pattern is expected to impact fish catches (and poultry supplies, which depend on such catches) and natural gas prices.

CNBC reported that the 1997-98 El Niño had an economic impact of up to $45 billion. It’s expected to increase this time as global economies have grown.

The United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, is expecting that disease, hunger and water shortages could impact up to 11 million children in parts of Africa. Another 2.3 million Central Americans are expected to need food aid because of droughts, according to the United Nations World Food Program.

And this El Niño has been linked to Hurricane Patricia in Mexico, fears of food shortages in Southern Africa and wildfires that have plagued Indonesia.

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations warned earlier this month that El Niño-linked rains in parts of Africa and Yemen could also trigger a surge in locust breeding, which would further impact crop harvests.

 

Russia to aid Iran’s nuclear program

Russia will be able to export nuclear equipment and technology to Iran now that president Vladimir Putin has eased an export ban, multiple news agencies reported on Monday.

The announcement came as Putin was visiting Tehran, the Iranian capital, for an energy summit. He was to hold talks with President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei later in the day, the state-owned Russian television network RT reported.

Under the decree, Russia will be able to help Iran modify and modernize two of its nuclear facilities. That will help the Middle Eastern nation produce and export enriched uranium, and the RT report indicated that Russia will be importing some low-enriched material from Iran.

Iran agreed in July to a landmark deal with Russia and five other world powers — China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. The comprehensive agreement was designed to restrict Iran’s controversial nuclear program, which the nation insists is used solely for civilian purposes but some Western nations feared was developing an atomic bomb.

Under the July deal, the United Nations agreed to lift sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy — costing it more than $160 billion in oil revenue in the past three years, the BBC reported at the time. But the sanctions won’t be lifted until it’s clear Iran complies with its end of the bargain, and they can be reinstated and extended if the nation doesn’t hold up to the terms.

The July agreement also requires Iran to dispose of 98 percent of its enriched uranium, and the country cannot possess more than 300 kilograms of the material for 15 years.

The BBC reported that low-enriched uranium has a 3 to 4 percent of the radioactive isotope U-235, which can be used in the process of fueling nuclear power plants. It can, however, be further enriched to the 90-percent level needed to make nuclear weapons, the BBC also reported.