EL NIÑO

A solid work of scientific reportage on a climatological mystery.

El Niño is not only a weather-maker, but also a newsmaker. It is the engine behind floods in hitherto desiccated sections of the Atacama desert, droughts in tropical Indonesia, firestorms in Australia, and even the balmy winters North America and Europe have recently enjoyed. Time science writer Nash capably profiles this “teleconnective,” Pacific Ocean–born—but ultimately global—weather phenomenon, which “turns dry places wet, wet places dry, cold places warm, and warm places cold.” She traces the long history of scientific efforts at describing the El Niño weather system, efforts that have underscored the interconnectedness of ecological systems generally, as well as the role of the tropical rainforests and deep oceans in regulating the global climate. Phenomena like El Niño have put climatologists in the habit of thinking in the long term rather than season by season. Nash writes with an eye to the relevance of such phenomena to the daily lives of people around the world, a relevance that will increase with the growing human population, which “virtually guarantees that the torrential rains and searing droughts connected with future El Niños and La Niñas will mean still more loss of lives and property, still more social and economic disruption.” One of Nash’s best sections treats the role of climate and ecological change in spreading such diseases as Ebola and hantavirus. Here and there, the author uses some by-the-numbers conventions of pop-science writing—calling researchers by their first names and emphasizing their homey but humanizing quirks, characterizing bad weather as a savage monster on the prowl, etc.—and the book could have stood some trimming. Even so, Nash is very good at explaining highly complex science and at engaging her readers in what could have been (beg pardon) a very dry story indeed.

Well paced and realized, a fine contribution to popular-science literature.