Prepare for a more intense El Niño, UN warns
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Suurenmoista, suurenmoiseen elämään. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson and at 16 hours GMT on Tuesday the 2nd of June, these are our main stories. The UN Secretary General says the predicted super El Nino weather system will pour fuel on a warming globe.
What urgent climate warning does the UN give about El Niño?
Israeli strikes in the south of Lebanon have continued despite a US-brokered partial ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Two people have died in central Kenya during protests against plans to establish a US-backed Ebola isolation centre. Also in this podcast... I would be frank with you, we feel abandoned.
We will continue to fight, for us it's existential, but I think the world really should step in and stop this suffering and stop these killings.
Ukraine remains defiant after one of the deadliest Russian attacks of recent months.
How is the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah evolving?
And our arts correspondent speaks to actors Tom Hanks and Tim Allen ahead of their fifth outing as Woody and Buzz. A new phase of the natural El Niño weather pattern could begin in the next few months, the UN has warned, boosting temperatures on the planet already under strain from climate change. The World Meteorological Organization says this El Niño is likely to strengthen over the rest of 2026, driving more extreme weather events around much of the globe. Several forecasts from national weather agencies suggest it could end up as one of the strongest ever recorded, a possible so-called super El Nino. Here's the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.
What are the implications of the protests in Kenya against the Ebola isolation center?
I thank the World Meteorological Organization for this vital new update. The science is clear. El Niño is arriving on our doorstep in the coming months with 90% certainty. The world must treat it as the urgent climate warning it is. El Niño conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world. Impacts will hit even harder, travel even further and cross borders with devastating speed.
I heard more about El Niño from our climate editor, Justin Rowlett. It's a change in the pattern of winds in the central, the tropical Pacific Ocean. So the trade winds that normally blow east to west either stop or reverse direction. And that means that affects the currents of water under the ocean.
What impact will the upcoming El Niño have on global weather patterns?
So the ocean collects heat from the atmosphere and instead of that heat travelling towards the west... it begins to travel towards the east. And we've got a series of satellites. There are moored buoys. There are floating buoys in the Pacific that measure water temperatures. And scientists can see this kind of pulse, a kind of wave of undersea heat developing and moving steadily across the ocean towards the west coast of South America where it upwells and that raises surface temperatures significantly. So the undersea, this water under the water, is up to 6 degrees Celsius higher than you'd expect at this time of year. That's a really significant increase in temperature. When it gets to the surface off the coast of South America in the autumn towards the winter, we're expecting surface temperatures to be 2 degrees Celsius or more than you would normally expect them to be.
That is a huge increase in temperature there.
How is the Indian monsoon expected to be affected by El Niño?
and that that heat obviously is radiated out into the atmosphere and that's where you get the kind of ripple of consequences on weather patterns around the world the weather is really all about the transfer of heat from the oceans into the atmosphere and then around the globe and the more heat you have it changes weather patterns. So, for example, we can expect to see things like droughts and wildfires in places like the Amazon, Australia, and then into Southeast Asia, even into India. So it can affect the Indian monsoon with huge consequences there and indeed around the world. Justin Rowlett. Listening to that was our global affairs reporter, Anbarasan Etirajan. So what impact could this have in South Asia and further afield?
As Justin was mentioning, the monsoon is going to have an impact because the Indian weather forecasters are saying India is likely to receive...
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:09
2
What urgent climate warning does the UN give about El Niño?
1:09–1:48
3
How is the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah evolving?
1:48–2:37
4
What are the implications of the protests in Kenya against the Ebola isolation center?
2:37–3:28
5
What impact will the upcoming El Niño have on global weather patterns?
3:28–4:24
6
How is the Indian monsoon expected to be affected by El Niño?
4:24–5:20
7
What are the consequences of food production changes in India due to climate conditions?
5:20–6:15
8
What challenges are faced by Ukrainian civilians amid ongoing conflict?
6:15–31:17
Speakers
7 identifiedMore from Global News Podcast
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