The Effect of El Niño on Women’s Health
Nature Climate Change published a 2026 study that estimated the severe effects of El Niño. The study cited that economic losses could reach $35 trillion by the end of this century. The 1982-1983 El Niño caused a 0.5-year reduction in life expectancy, with monetary losses of $2.6 trillion, while the 1997-98 El Niño resulted in a 0.4-year reduction in life expectancy at a cost of $4.7 trillion. But all these figures fail to account for the vulnerable groups who bear the cost? This blog will try to understand one such vulnerable group, women, through a lens of Maternal Health, Food and Nutrition, Gender Based Violence, and Mental Health. El Niño is a periodic climatic event characterized by warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean (Zhao et al., 2023). It is the world’s most consequential annual climate event, triggering extreme weather such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves, and disrupting the global food system. The gendered ...
