Dear Editor,
El Niño isn’t just a Chris Farley skit, it’s a real weather phenomenon, and this year is poised to be one of the strongest in recorded history. But El Niño is more than just a little more rain or a little warmer winter, it is wholescale climatic change – shifting precipitation patterns leading to droughts or deluges in atypical places, searing heatwaves baking agricultural land, and most ominously, a massive predicted death toll.
Living in relative comfort in the US, we can insulate ourselves from the worst shocks – we have A/C, we have snowblowers, we have societal supports. Consider the situation in less-developed nations soon to be slammed El Niño – including widely populated countries like Nigeria, Indonesia, Sudan, India and Brazil.
An estimate from the University of Chicago’s Climate Impact Lab projects an excess death toll of 451,000 people worldwide from this weather event.
Even more worryingly, this death and devastation may just be a preview of our new normal; a Guardian article on 9/23 calls it a ‘postcard from the future’, if we fail to act today to mitigate our effects on an increasingly uninhabitable planet. The technology to do so is here, and increasingly cheaper than ever – solar panels, batteries, efficient and effective public transport, meat substitutes, ebikes, you name it. Do we have the personal and political will to use them?
Sincerely, Nathan Dombeck Janesville, WI