More than 450,000 people worldwide could die because of a super El Niño over the next six months, according to a forecast in a report published on Tuesday by the Climate Impact Lab, a research group based at the University of Chicago.
Citing the Climate Impact Lab report, Britain’s Guardian newspaper said an estimated 451,000 people could die from excess heat between September this year and February 2027. The report also said high rates of heat-related deaths could continue until June or July 2027. Some meteorologists have called it the “Godzilla effect”.
The highest death toll could be in the West African country of Nigeria, where 31,320 people could die as a result of the super El Niño. Deaths are also feared in Indonesia in South-East Asia (19,251) and Sudan in north-east Africa (17,430). A further 15,670 people could die in India, 13,271 in Brazil, 13,271 in DR Congo, 9,900 in Niger and 7,953 in Chad.
Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, and her fellow researchers say, however, that this is not a definitive figure but an early warning. They believe a large share of these 450,000 people at risk could be saved if urgent awareness campaigns, cooling centres, protection for workers and medical services are put in place quickly around the world.
Michael Greenstone, a professor at the University of Chicago and one of the leaders of the Climate Impact Lab research team, said land temperatures worldwide could stay on average about 1.2 degrees Celsius above normal until mid-2027 because of the super El Niño. In his view, this natural phenomenon, in which Pacific Ocean temperatures rise abnormally, is set to break all previous records.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report