El Nino's Global Food Security Threat Reaches Crisis Levels
El Niño's impact on global food security is growing increasingly concerning as crops fail across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This year's event is on track to become the most powerful in roughly 80 years of recorded observation.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) puts the probability of El Niño reaching 'very strong' intensity between October and December at 81 percent. Under that scenario, three-month average sea-surface temperatures in key Pacific monitoring zones would run more than 2 degrees Celsius above normal.
India endured its fifth-driest June since modern rainfall records began in 1901, while Ethiopia's fertile highlands are experiencing their driest summer in four decades. In Kenya, corn yields could drop to one-tenth of normal levels, with researchers describing the crop as being in 'shockingly poor condition.'
The UN World Food Programme projected that El Niño could push about 50 million additional people worldwide into severe food insecurity by the end of this year, an increase of roughly 20 percent.