Word: peru
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...climatologists have been tracking its progress, for it signifies that El Nino--that mischievous gremlin of the atmosphere and oceans--is once again gathering strength, preparing to unleash meteorological havoc in the months to come. The tropical storms spawning off Mexico, the heavy downpours that have drenched Chile and Peru, the worrisome lack of rain in Australia and Indonesia--all, say scientists, are signs that a powerful El Nino has grabbed control of the world's weather machine...
Until recently, most weather scientists paid scant attention to the periodic episodes of warm water that for countless centuries have appeared off the coast of Peru. They seemed to be a local event, one that affected mainly fish--in particular, Peru's lucrative anchovy fishery--and seabirds. Not until the early 1970s, when that fishery's collapse was accompanied by drought and crop failures around the world, did the global reach of El Nino become clear. However, it took the disastrous weather of 1982-83 to convince scientists and policymakers that the tropical Pacific merited close watching...
...terms of the climate machine, El Nino is more than just a sudden warm current off Peru. It refers to a rise in sea-surface temperatures over much of the equatorial Pacific as well as a change in winds and ocean currents. Indeed, there is a kind of climatic flip-flop, with a reversal of conditions across a wide stretch of ocean. Consequently, climate experts no longer refer to El Nino alone but speak of the El Nino Southern Oscillation. Rather like a pendulum, the ENSO cycle swings between an El Nino state and its opposite, a cold-water state...
...bathtub, with a fan stirring up air representing the trade winds. In the ENSO cycle's neutral or cold phase, these winds blow from east to west, pushing water away from the South American coast, so that the ocean's surface is a couple of feet lower off Peru than it is off Indonesia. The difference, although seemingly small, has important consequences: to replace the water that the winds have swept away, cold, nutrient-rich water from the depths wells up, and so Peru's waters are loaded with fish. But when an El Nino gets started, the pattern shifts...
...encouraged further investigation of the effects of MX and other chlorination by-products, and last week the National Institutes of Health announced that it was launching a two-year study. The NCI editorial also warned about the perils of abandoning drinking-water chlorination too hastily. It noted that when Peru did that in 1991, some 300,000 Peruvians were stricken in a cholera epidemic...