Hey La Niña, El Niño Is Back: Counting the Costs of Climate Extremes
The transition from a prolonged three-year La Niña phase to an El Niño event in 2023 marks a significant shift in the Earth’s climate system, with far-reaching environmental and economic consequences. Declared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in June 2023, this development signals not merely a cyclical climatic fluctuation but an intensifying phenomenon shaped by the broader forces of anthropogenic climate change. While El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has long been recognized as a natural driver of global weather variability, its recent manifestations reveal a growing interaction between natural climate dynamics and human-induced warming, amplifying its impacts across regions and sectors. ENSO refers to a recurring climate pattern characterized by fluctuations in sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, along with corresponding atmospheric changes. It exists in three phases: El Niño, La Niña, and a neutral state...