The financial toll of El Niño, the recurring climate event that causes far-reaching changes in temperature and rainfall, could be costing trillions in lost income worldwide. Researchers at Dartmouth College in the USA spent two years examining global economic activity in the decades following the 1982-83 and 1997-98 El Niño events. They found that in the half decade after each of these events, the global economy lost US$4.1 trillion and US$5.7 trillion respectively, most of it borne by the world’s poorest nations in the tropics. In the years that it strikes, El Niño is often accompanied by devastating floods, crop-killing droughts and an uptick in tropical diseases. The researchers predict that the upcoming event could lead to US$84 trillion in losses, as the warming climate potentially amplifies its strength.
