UN Warns of Global Hunger Crisis as ‘Godzilla’ El Niño Looms

The United Nations’ World Food Programme and agriculture agency have issued a joint appeal for funds to prevent a global hunger crisis. The warning comes as a powerful El Niño weather pattern threatens to trigger extreme droughts and floods worldwide. El Niño, Spanish for “little boy,” is a natural climate cycle named by Pacific fishers in the 1800s. Scientists only understood its global reach in the 1970s. The pattern is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures and brutal weather extremes. Adugna Woyessa was a child when a severe drought struck Ethiopia in the early 1970s. His school turned a classroom into a grain store for farmers. At the time, scientists were just beginning to link the parched fields to shifts in trade winds that had long caused violent weather from South America to Australia. Now, experts fear a return of this destructive cycle—possibly with “Godzilla” strength. The UN warns that without immediate funding, the coming extremes could devastate crops and deepen hunger in vulnerable regions.