"It's amazing how, you know, these tiny little plankton shells from 20,000 years ago are informing us about how the oceans might change in the future," Kaustubh Thirumalai, the study's co-lead author and a University of Arizona assistant professor, tells Inverse. A paper describing the research was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. This highlights the significance of ancient foraminifera in assessing future climate change implications.
"El Niño is intrinsic to modern Earth. If Earth is a house, El Niño is like a heat pump: When it kicks in, it makes a big change to how different parts of the house feel." This metaphor emphasizes El Niño’s crucial role in climatic shifts and how it is impacted by global temperature changes.
Scientists found that extreme El Niño events could become 40 to 50 percent more frequent, resulting in unusual wildfires, air turbulence, and heavy rainfall, demonstrating the urgent need for understanding these patterns for future climate resilience.
"Then versus now, versus tomorrow... 20,000 years ago, the world was different - but not by much. Sea level was 130 meters lower than it is today, and the missing liquid was locked away as ice." This comparison illustrates how some climate mechanisms remain consistent despite significant changes in conditions.
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