Geneva (Union)
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has warned that about 282 million people around the world are facing “acute hunger” due to the negative effects of the La Niña climate phenomenon, a recurring climate phenomenon that brings unusually cold ocean temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, often leading to an increase in extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, hurricanes and heavy rains.
The Director of the FAO Office in Geneva, Dominique Burgeon, said in a press conference yesterday that the number is likely to increase according to the Climate Prediction Center’s forecasts, and the probability issued in September indicates that there is a 71% chance that the “La Niña” phenomenon will start in the period from September to November 2024, and it is expected to continue from January to March 2025.
The report said that “the World Meteorological Organization’s long-range forecast centers indicate a possible transition to the La Niña phenomenon during the same period with a probability of about 55%.”
The phenomenon comes after one of the strongest recorded instances of La Niña – a different climate phenomenon that causes high temperatures and erratic rainfall across continents – occurred in 2023-24, with countries such as South Africa experiencing devastating drought and the Horn of Africa experiencing severe flooding after years of drought.
He pointed out that the “La Niña” phenomenon caused extreme weather events such as drought, heat waves and floods, which affected more than 60 million people around the world and was one of the main factors of food insecurity over the past month.
“As affected areas continue to grapple with the fallout, the impending La Niña phenomenon threatens to exacerbate already critical vulnerabilities,” the report warned, adding that this collision of extreme climate events threatens to reverse years of development progress, drive up food prices and exacerbate food insecurity and malnutrition.
The organization said that these disasters show how vulnerable many regions are when extreme weather conditions strike, causing people to lose their homes, livelihoods and sometimes their lives. It warned that agri-food systems that are highly sensitive to climate change could face long-term impacts, such as the degradation of soil and water resources, as disrupted planting seasons, reduced crop yields and the loss of livestock would make it difficult for farmers to maintain production and push millions more into hunger and poverty.
La Niña is a natural phenomenon that affects the oceans every 4-12 years, where the temperature of surface water rises, generating warm water masses and currents in tropical regions that cause climate changes.
#FAO #million #people #world #face #acute #hunger