El Niño could return this year to crank global temperatures even higher
El Niño could return this year to crank global temperatures even higher
It’s not a certainty, but climate scientists say there’s a strong chance that the weather phenomenon known as El Niño could return later this year.
We’ve been in a relatively cool cycle for the last few years, and El Niño generally brings warmer overall temperatures worldwide.
With what climate change has been doing to temperatures, it’s possible 2023 or 2024 could be the globe’s hottest year on record. That could come at an economic cost.
El Niño has a lot of effects, said Justin Mankin, an assistant professor of geography at Dartmouth College.
“Things like droughts and floods and wildfire conditions, those get enhanced with El Niños,” he said.
It also raises the possibility of more extreme heat in some parts of the globe, and those hot days are expensive. Mankin and a colleague estimated the dollar cost of the hottest days of the year between the early 90s and 2013.
“At the low end $5 trillion, and at the upper end, nearly $30 trillion globally,” Mankin said.
“There’s business interruption, there are health impacts, there are infrastructure impacts,” said Kathy Baughman McLeod with the Atlantic Council. Businesses should prepare for the heat.
“Get educated, get aware and do a heat risk assessment for your employees and for your operations,” she said.
That means learning where heat could impact your supply chain, Baughman McLeod said, and protecting workers.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
