El Nino: The Weather Phenomenon That Changed The World

For centuries the fisherfolk of Peru have been aware that, each Christmas, the chilly northbound waters of their shoreline are overswept by warmer southbound currents. The fishermen call this seasonal oceanic hiccup El Nino, "The Christ Child", in honour of its Yuletide timing and bountiful gifts of fish--a deceptively kindly epithet when you consider that, on those years when El Nino fails, as it does every decade or so, it causes worldwide disruption and mayhem. The job of author (and science filmmaker) Couper-Johnston is to explain the mechanism behind this how unexpected cold water in the Pacific means starvation in India, oil spills in Alaska, mosquito plagues in Memphis. The style is anecdotal and with one breathless bound CJ can shift from Aztec human sacrifice to Chinese child slavery to the sinking of the Titanic (all, it seems, promoted or caused by El Nino's climatic mischief-making). Sometimes the writer's enthusiasm gets the better of him, and he overeggs the eco-meteorological by the end the reader is left wondering whether El Nino might be halfway responsible for the disappointing sales of the latest Oasis album. Nonetheless, an absorbing, accessible and highly enjoyable book.-- Sean Thomas