New study suggests human-caused climate change are intensifying El Ninos

A new study suggests that El Ninos the natural climatic chaos agent that pops up periodically and spikes global temperatures are getting stronger because of humancaused climate changeEl Ninos are more than 36 per cent stronger than they were before the industrial age began in the mid 1800s with a 16 per cent jump in just the last 40 years showing that the increase is accelerating according to a study in Thursdays journal ScienceThe findings come as a strong El Nino that formed a couple months ago is forecast to be the biggest on record in coming months El Ninos which are a temporary warming of parts of the equatorial Pacific warp weather worldwide and increase extreme events including heat waves floods in some places and droughts in others They can cost trillions in damageThats important because strong El Ninos have much stronger impacts on climate hazards and extremes worldwide When we set out to answer the question of why this might be happening we set our data up against a record of global temperature and we found that the increase in El Ninos strength closely parallels the rise in global temperature that is due to human causes such as the burning of fossil fuels said study lead author Julia Cole a paleoclimate scientist at the University of MichiganHer study looks back at El Ninos going back 900 years or soEl Nino is the most violent aspect of climate variability worldwide with effects ranging from local fisheries collapse to widespread coral dieoffs to severe droughts and food shortages around the world said Dalhousie University marine scientist Boris Worm who wasnt part of the studyWorm quoted the late climate scientist Wallace Broecker who warned the climate system is an angry beast and we are poking it with sticks And then Worm added Human emissions are the stick and El Nino is of the angry outbursts that can be so threatening to our collective safetyAn El Ninos strength is determined by measuring water temperature in a region of the central Pacific around the equator and comparing a threemonth average to normalIf its 05 degrees Celsius 09 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal its becomes an El NinoThe top of the scale is 2 degrees Celsius 36 degrees Fahrenheit and is called very strong The most recent weekly El Nino figure is at 27 degrees 49 degrees Fahrenheit and is expected to keep growing for another two to four months according to Columbia Universitys El Nino trackerScientists have long theorised that as the world warms El Ninos would get stronger because they are based on ocean temperature differences compared to average But observational records only goes back about 75 years so scientists have previously said the data is too spotty for a trendSo scientists have looked for clues that indicate an El Nino without measuring water temperatures directlyScientists for example have looked back at historical records of changes in weather around the world and figured out past El Ninos such as the supersized one in 1877 due to the changes they cause across the globeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever