This Washington Post piece revisits one of the most devastating climate events in history the 1877–1878 "super El Niño," which contributed to global droughts, crop failures, and famines that led to the deaths of tens of millions of people worldwide.
As the possibility of another extreme El Niño event emerges, the question is not whether we are better prepared but how today's risks transmit through a far more interconnected global system. While forecasting, infrastructure, and resilience have improved, rising baseline temperatures and climate change may amplify the intensity of such events. At the same time, modern economies remain deeply exposed through global supply chains, food systems, water resources, and energy markets, meaning physical climate shocks can cascade into inflation, volatility, and broader macroeconomic disruption.
For investors, this is a reminder that physical climate risk is systemic, not local and increasingly material to portfolio construction, asset pricing, and long-term strategy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2026/05/12/super-el-nino-1877-population-impacts/
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Aya Pariy
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