Our affair with El Niño

S. George Philander

"Until 1997, few people had heard of the seasonal current that Peruvians nicknamed El Nino. But when meteorologists linked it to devastating floods in California, severe droughts in Indonesia, and strange weather everywhere, its name became entrenched in the common parlance faster than a typhoon making landfall. Bumper stickers appeared bearing this phrase "Don't blame me, blame El Nino." Stockbrokers muttered "El Nino" when the market became erratic." "What's behind this fascinating natural phenomenon, and how did our perceptions of it change? In this captivating book, renowned oceanographer George Philander engages readers in lucid and stimulating discussions of the scientific, political, economic, and cultural developments that shaped our perceptions to this force of nature." "The book begins by outlining the history of El Nino, an innocuous current that appears off the coast of...

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