The article I have chosen to blog about this week is titled “El Nino Upsets Seasons and Upends Lives Worldwide.”  It states that millions of lives are being disrupted by weather linked to one of the strongest El Nino’s in a generation.  The focus of the article describes how the locations of Africa, Asia, and South America are primarily being affected.  While some of these areas are receiving too much rain and flooding, other areas are not experiencing enough rainfall.  Paraguay is one of the South American regions that is experiencing sever flooding, where families are being displaced across the country and sever damage has occurred in its cities and rural areas.  In India, the exact opposite has been occurring and sever droughts can be seen throughout the country.  The lack of monsoon rains took a huge hit on farmers and forced them off the land and into dry labor jobs.  It is noted that El Nino occurs every two to seven years when warm pacific water shifts eastward.  The problems associated with El Nino can be associated with global warming because as the global climate keeps changing the El Ninos seem to show a trend in increasing strength.  This causes more severe storms and changes in rainfall patterns.  It is important that we try and control this phenomena to halt the damage to the regions effected and to limit the negative deviations from people’s normal way of life.

Fountain, Henry. “El Niño Upsets Seasons and Upends Lives Worldwide.”The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Mar. 2016. Web. 24 Mar. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/science/el-nino-upsets-seasons-and-upends-lives-worldwide.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fearth&action=click&contentCollection=earth®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.