S1E6: The winds of El Nino change: Green Pulse Ep 6

Green Pulse Ep 6: The winds of El Nino change: 


12:49 mins


Synopsis: In this new podcast series for 2019, The Straits Times
dives into all things green, blue and brown. Green Pulse analyses
the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity
conservation to climate change.


This month, we chat with Mr Rodney Martinez, international
director for the Ecuador-based International Research Centre on
El Nino, or CIIFEN, on a climate phenomenon known to wreak havoc
all across the Pacific Ocean - El Nino.


El Nino is a natural climate cycle that can significantly
influence weather patterns across the world. When it hits, on
average every three to four years, it brings hotter and drier
conditions to South-east Asia.


This causes forest fires in places such as Indonesia to burn
harder and for longer, and in 2015, it resulted in the worst haze
crisis on record for the region.


Across the Pacific Ocean, however, El Nino has an opposite, but
no less destructive, impact. In places such as Ecuador and Peru,
El Nino brings rain to the usually arid coast of South America,
causing flash floods. And as the waters warm along the coast
during El Nino events, the supply of nutrient-rich cool water to
the surface is cut off, affecting fisheries and ecosystems there.


El Nino is a natural climate cycle that would occur regardless of
human-caused climate change. But its impact - ranging from
changing rainfall patterns to warming seas - offers us a glimpse
into what things could be like in a warming world.


In April 2019, ST environment correspondent Audrey Tan and
photojournalist Mark Cheong traced the footsteps of El Nino
across the Pacific Ocean to investigate El Nino’s see-sawing
impact.


Read their stories from Indonesia and Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands
here: 


Produced by: Audrey Tan (audreyt@sph.com.sg) and Mark Cheong
(mcheong@sph.com.sg)


Edited by: Adam Azlee


Follow Green Pulse Podcast here and rate us:


Channel: https://str.sg/JWaf


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Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg


Follow Audrey Tan on Twitter: https://str.sg/JLMB


Read her stories: https://str.sg/JLM2


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