Por Robert Hunziker
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Image by Joseph Barrientos. |
An estimated 82% of the world’s oceans are currently experiencing marine heat waves.” (A Surge of Marine Heat Waves Threatens to Scramble Ocean Life, YaleEnvironment360 d/d Sept. 3, 2026)
According to Copernicus, as of August 10, 2026: “July saw exceptionally high temperatures for the month across a large portion of the tropical Pacific, an area where El Niño conditions are present and forecast to further strengthen in the coming months.”
Consequently, extreme unbearable heat, raging thunderstorms, powerful, damaging flash floods, and parched drought conditions beyond anything experienced are the likely elements to follow in the footsteps of this forecast. Is it time to batten down the hatches?
What To Do?
UNFCCC COP31 is scheduled for November 9, 2026, at Antalya Expo Center, Antalya, Türkiye. This is the next UN Climate Change Conference. The current expectation is that COP31 will focus on “actual implementation as well as enforcement” of climate policies intended to accelerate the global transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. If it happens, it’ll be a radical change from all previous thirty COP meetings of the nations of the world.
Alarming Ocean Conditions
Ocean heat is unusually severe. According to Global Climate Risks, severe hot spells in ocean waters have profound long-lasting impacts on sea life. In fact, “Current marine heat waves are already taking a toll. Dead and dying birds, including California brown pelicans, loons, and grebes, are turning up again on Southern California beaches. ‘We’re seeing cormorants walk to shore and then just die within the hour,’ Tammy Russell, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told the Associated Press, ‘And we’re seeing it happening across the whole coast.’ Seabirds along South America’s Pacific coast have been dying in large numbers in recent months, and experts have linked the fatalities to higher ocean temperatures.” (YaleEnvironment360)
“What was occurring recently in California is similar to what we are seeing off the coast of Ecuador,” said Sebástian Cruz, Marine Program Coordinator for South America at ABC. ‘Our recent surveys have been reporting seabird strandings and deaths every day, but it started to explode in June, with birds also showing up on beaches that had no previous detections. It showcases the magnitude of this El Niño over such a large expanse of the Pacific.” (American Bird Conservancy, Aug. 6, 2026)
WMO Warning – The exceptional El Niño demands exceptional preparation and response. Never in its 50-year history has the World Meteorological Organization launched a comparable major mobilization with National Meteorological and Hydrological Services on the frontlines of delivering forecasts and services to save lives and livelihoods.
Numerous sources warn of perilous times ahead for the world’s oceans as temperatures hit levels never seen in modern times, as well as risks of extreme weather events well into 2027. A new update from the World Meteorological Organization claims El Niño is firmly established and is expected to strengthen further, with a 100% probability that it’ll persist into 2027. Regions of the world will experience extraordinary levels of floods, droughts and/or extreme heat.
According to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, “El Niño is being supersized before our eyes. The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up. Sea surface temperatures are rising, temperatures keep climbing, and the world is in the danger zone of extreme weather. The race now is between rising risks and our commitment to take climate action and protect people. We must win that race.”
The challenge for world leadership to address climate change has never been so pertinent.
WMO notification: “This exceptional El Niño demands exceptional preparation and response. Never before in the 50-year history of the World Meteorological Organization have we launched such a major mobilization with National Meteorological and Hydrological Services who are on the frontline of delivering the forecasts and services to save lives and livelihoods… WMO is committed to working closely with partners across the United Nations and humanitarian system to provide the climate intelligence and insights needed to support disaster management and climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture, health, energy and water resources. We have no time to lose.”
UN Admits Climate Out of Control
The UN, in a strategic retreat, has finally admitted Earth is soon going to exceed safe temperature thresholds agreed upon by the 2015 Paris climate accord. (Global Warming Will Exceed Limit, AP News, Sept. 1, 2026): “Earth is soon going to exceed the safe temperature threshold agreed upon by the world in the 2015 Paris climate accord because of warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas, according to a bleak first-of-its-kind report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme Wednesday.”
Coping and Containment – Limit Peak Warming
The new UN report states: “During this overshoot period, more people will die or get sick because of the worsening climate change and its extreme weather, the report said. Food production will drop, people will go hungry, water shortages will worsen, economies will be hurt and species like coral will go extinct.”
“Although the triggers behind the recent deadly Nepal flooding that came as part of a Himalayan glacier dislodging are complex, unfortunately we do expect to see more of such things, and this is exactly why we need to limit peak warming.”
The report warns of tipping points with irreversible and cascading effects, including the loss of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, the loss of the Amazon rainforest, and the shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean circulation system that keeps much of Europe warm.
The UN report calls for nations of the world to work towards trying to moderate and slow down global warming as much as possible. This is an admission of total failure of past COPs to impact climate change. Now, nations must try to “contain” it! Meanwhile. The world’s largest economy is focused on expanding fossil fuel usage while slashing renewables. Go figure!
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.
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