The attribution of most unusual climatic occurrences to the El Nino effect is a contentious topic that warrants careful consideration. While El Nino, characterized by anomalous warming of sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, undeniably exerts a significant influence on global weather patterns, it may not be the sole explanation for all climatic anomalies. While it can exacerbate droughts, storms, and temperature fluctuations in various regions, other factors such as human-induced climate change, natural variability, and local weather phenomena also play crucial roles. Thus, while El Nino is a vital component in understanding and predicting certain climatic events, it is essential to acknowledge the complexity of Earth’s climate system and the multitude of factors at play. Comprehensive analyses that incorporate various influences are imperative to accurately attribute unusual climatic happenings and formulate effective mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Tag: Important geophysical phenomenon.
Decoding the Question:
- In the Introduction, start your answer with a brief introduction on El Nino.
- In Body, discuss the undesirable circumstances.
- Conclude your answer with the significance of El-Nino.
Answer:
The name ‘El-Nino’ is given to the periodic development of a warm ocean current along the coast of Peru as a temporary replacement of the cold Peruvian current. ‘El Nino’ is a Spanish word meaning ‘the child’, and refers to the baby Christ, as this current starts flowing during Christmas. El Nino is the “warm phase” of a larger phenomenon called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). La Nina, the “cool phase” of ENSO, is a pattern that describes the unusual cooling of the region’s surface waters. El Niño and La Niña are considered the ocean part of ENSO, while the Southern Oscillation is its atmospheric changes.
El Nino leads to a lot of undesirable circumstances such as:
- Due to El- Nino, warm water and low-pressure conditions develop in the Eastern Pacific (Peru) and Cold conditions and high pressure in Western Pacific (Australia). Since Pressure is inversely related to the amount of rainfall, El Nino causes drought situations in Australia and Southeast Asia.
- El Nino also leads to reversal of pressure difference between Indian and Pacific Ocean- known as El Nino Southern Oscillation. El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) weakens the Trade winds, consequently less push to the Southwestern Monsoon Winds from Mascarene High to India, and therefore poor monsoon. Poor monsoon results in-
- Drought conditions which decrease agricultural output, lead to food inflation.
- Declined supply of cotton, oilseeds and sugarcane negatively affects the textile, edible oil and food processing industries respectively.
- In India, El Nino’s impact will be felt the most at rainfed regions of central, south, and north-west India, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and Bihar. Rice, soybean, cotton, maize, jowar, groundnut, sugarcane, kharif pulses and oilseed etc. crops will be affected.
- Drought situation over Southeast Asia and Australia hurts rice and wheat cultivation respectively.
- Warm conditions over the Peru coast are unsuitable for the Plankton population, thus bad for the fishing industry. Birds migrate in search of fishes, thus less guano dropping for the Fertilizer industry in Peru and Ecuador.
- Flood situations in South America & US Midwest lead to decline in coffee-cocoa and corn-wheat production respectively.
- El-Nino brings drought conditions in Indonesia as well. Thus, creating a forest fire situation.
- The presence of the El Nino leads to an increase in sea-surface temperatures
- With global warming there will be increasing number of El-Nino events
Role of other factors in unusual climatic happenings:
- El Nino is itself part of a larger system ENSO
- Other phenomena like Indian Ocean Dipole, Rossby waves, Jet streams, and polar vortices also influence climate and produce extreme events
- Above climate change is changing weather dynamics across the world.
It is a global phenomenon. Though happening in a limited area, it may have wider implications over the globe. When the linkage between El Nino and climate effects were initially suggested by the British scientist, Gilbert Walker, it was deemed ridiculous that one phenomenon could have an effect on regions as far off as Australia, India etc and Canada. However, the occurrence of El Nino in the past few decades has proved without a doubt, their far-reaching consequences.
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