{"id":76601,"date":"2016-07-25T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=76601"},"modified":"2016-07-20T16:56:29","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T15:56:29","slug":"monster-el-nino-subsides-la-nina-hitting-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/07\/monster-el-nino-subsides-la-nina-hitting-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Monster\u2019 El Ni\u00f1o Subsides, La Ni\u00f1a Hitting Soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"baher-kamal\"<\/a>18 Jul 2016<\/em> – As if human-made armed conflicts, wickedness, rights abuse, gender violence, cruel inequality and climate catastrophes were not enough, now the saying \u201cGod Always Forgives, Men Sometimes, Nature Never\u201d appears to be more true than ever. See what happens.<\/p>\n

Now that the 2015-2016 El Ni\u00f1o \u2013one of the strongest on record\u2013 has subsided, La Ni\u00f1a \u2013 El Ni\u00f1o\u2019s \u2018counterpart\u2019\u2013 could strike soon, further exacerbating a severe humanitarian crisis that is affecting millions of people in the most vulnerable communities in tens of countries worldwide, especially in Africa and Asia Pacific.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o is the term used to describe the warming of the central to eastern tropical Pacific that occurs, on average, every three to seven years. It raises sea surface temperatures and impacts weather systems around the globe so that some places receive more rain while others receive none at all, often in a reversal of their usual weather pattern.<\/p>\n

La Ni\u00f1a is the opposite weather phenomena\u2014it lowers sea surface temperature producing a counter impact and anyway bringing more catastrophes with heavy rains in areas affected by El Ni\u00f1o draughts and more of these in flooded regions.<\/p>\n

\"West<\/a>

West Hararghe region, Ethiopia, December 2015. Some 10.2 million people are food insecure amidst one of the worst droughts to hit Ethiopia in decades. Photo credit: WFP\/Stephanie Savariaud<\/p><\/div>\n

Devastation<\/strong><\/p>\n

While El Ni\u00f1o has devastated harvests, livestock and thus livelihoods, its huge impact on children is worsening, \u201cas hunger, malnutrition and disease continue to increase following the severe droughts and floods spawned by the event,\u201d a new report from the UN Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF<\/a>) has just revealed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Making matters worse, there is a strong chance La Ni\u00f1a could strike at some stage this year, UNICEF\u2019s report \u201cIt\u2019s not over \u2013 El Ni\u00f1o\u2019s impact on children<\/a>\u201d alerts.<\/p>\n

\"Drought<\/a>

Drought associated with the El Ni\u00f1o phenomenon has severely affected Arsi, Ethiopia. Photo credit: OCHA\/Charlotte Cans<\/p><\/div>\n

El Ni\u00f1o, and its counterpart La Ni\u00f1a, occur cyclically, in recent years, mainly due to the effects of global climate change, extreme weather events associated with these phenomena \u2013such as droughts and floods\u2013 have increased in frequency and severity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMillions of children and their communities need support in order to survive. They need help to prepare for the eventuality La Ni\u00f1a will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis. And they need help to step up disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change, which is causing more intense and more frequent extreme weather events,\u201d said<\/a> UNICEF\u2019s Director of Emergency Programs, Afshan Khan.<\/p>\n

Millions of Children in Dire Need<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indeed, the UN Children Fund reports that children in the worst affected areas are going hungry. In Eastern and Southern Africa \u2013the worst hit regions\u2013 some 26.5 million children need support, including more than one million who need treatment for severe acute malnutrition. \u201c<\/p>\n

The same children who are affected by El Ni\u00f1o and threatened by La Ni\u00f1a, find themselves on the front-lines of climate change,\u201d added Khan.<\/p>\n

Children in the worst affected areas are going hungry now, UNICEF report says, and warns that their futures are at risk, as extreme weather has disrupted schooling, increased disease and malnutrition, and robbed families of their livelihoods. In drought-affected areas, some children are staying away from class to fetch water over long distances, or have moved away with their families following loss of crops or livestock.<\/p>\n

Moreover, being out of school often increases a child\u2019s risk of abuse, exploitation and, in some areas, child marriage, UNICEF adds, while warning that malnutrition among children under five has increased alarmingly in many of the affected areas, as families who were already living hand-to-mouth.<\/p>\n

In many countries, El Ni\u00f1o affects access to safe water, and has been linked to increases in diseases such as dengue fever, diarrhoea and cholera, which are \u201cmajor killers of children.\u201d Drought can also force adolescent girls and women to engage in transactional sex to survive. And mortality for children living with HIV is two to six times higher for those who are severely malnourished than for those who are not, UNICEF reports<\/a>.
\n
\nGlobal Development at Risk<\/strong><\/p>\n

UNICEF is not the sole UN agency to warn against the devastating effects of El Ni\u00f1o and the huge threats from La Ni\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

\"Farmers<\/a>

Farmers in Ethiopia. The Horn of Africa is one of the areas hardest hit by El Ni\u00f1o. Photo credit: FAO\/Tamiru Legesse<\/p><\/div>\n

In fact, failure to prepare for and adapt to the \u2018new normal\u2019 of increasing climate-linked emergencies such as El Ni\u00f1o could put global development targets at risk and deepen widespread human suffering in areas already hard hit by floods and droughts, top United Nations officials alerted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The heads of the three Rome-based UN agencies, FAO, IFAD and WFP, along with the UN Special Envoy on El Ni\u00f1o & Climate, warned<\/a> in a recent meeting that more than 60 million people worldwide, about 40 million in East and Southern Africa alone, are projected to be food insecure due to the impact of the El Ni\u00f1o climate event.<\/p>\n

To coordinate responses to these challenges UN agencies and partners on July 6 met at the Rome headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO<\/a>). The joint meeting included the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD<\/a>) and the World Food Programme (WFP<\/a>).<\/p>\n

FAO Director-General Jos\u00e9 Graziano da Silva warned that the impact of El Ni\u00f1o on agricultural livelihoods has been enormous and with La Ni\u00f1a on the doorsteps the situation could worsen.<\/p>\n

\u201cEl Ni\u00f1o has caused primarily a food and agricultural crisis,\u201d he said, announcing that FAO will therefore mobilise additional new funding to \u201cenable it to focus on anticipatory early action in particular, for agriculture, food and nutrition, to mitigate the impacts of anticipated events and to strengthen emergency response capabilities through targeted preparedness investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, OXFAM<\/a> international\u2013a confederation of non-governmental organisations, reported that about 60 million people across Southern Africa and the Horn of Africa, Central America, and the Pacific now face worsening hunger and poverty due to droughts and crop failures in 2014\/5 that have been exacerbated by the El Ni\u00f1o weather system in 2015\/6.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis number is likely to rise,\u201d warns this international confederation of NGOs working together for \u201ca just world without poverty, where people are valued and treated equally, enjoy their rights as full citizens, and can influence decisions affecting their lives<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

OXFAM has recently issued a short report giving a voice to some of the people that it is working with in Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, El Salvador and Papua New Guinea. \u201cThey\u2019ve told us that they have lived through bad times before, but that this drought is much worse than previous ones,\u201d says the report, which is authored Debbie Hillier.<\/p>\n

These are some of the most impacting excerpts of OXFAM\u2019s report, titled \u201dWhat Will Become of Us:Voices from around the world on drought and El Nino<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 People go to bed with empty stomachs; toil in their fields or go to school with the gnawing pain of hunger; they walk or cycle for miles to try to find food. Many people have reduced the number of meals they eat per day to two or even one.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Hunger hurts. For parents, the struggle to put food on the table has been acutely painful; children cry for food, babies nurse on empty breasts.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Many people have nothing left. Farmers and herders have worked hard, but now they watch their crops fail and their animals die.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Despite their best efforts, many communities and governments are being overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

People cope by draining their savings and stocks, selling assets, borrowing money, and migrating to find work.<\/p>\n

\u2026 When these are exhausted, coping strategies become more damaging and women and girls often bear the brunt: dropping out of school, entering early and forced marriages, facing an increased risk of violence during longer trips to collect wood, food or water, and transactional sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its GROW blog channel<\/a>, OXFAM has also published a short report on El Ni\u00f1o and Climate Change:All You Need to Know<\/a>, showing the relation between the two weather events.<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

Baher Kamal, Egyptian-born, Spanish national secular journalist. He is founder and publisher of\u00a0<\/em>Human Wrongs Watch<\/a>. Kamal is a pro-peace, non-violence, human rights, harmonious coexistence defender among human beings and with Nature, with more than 43 years of professional experience. With these issues in sight, he covered practically all professional posts, from correspondent to chief editor of dailies and international news agencies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ipsnews.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that the 2015-2016 El Ni\u00f1o \u2013one of the strongest on record\u2013 has subsided, La Ni\u00f1a \u2013 El Ni\u00f1o\u2019s \u2018counterpart\u2019\u2013 could strike soon, further exacerbating a severe humanitarian crisis that is affecting millions of people in the most vulnerable communities in tens of countries worldwide, especially in Africa and Asia Pacific.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}