Prepare for a drier, more flammable Amazon

“Prepare for El Niño,” the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a statement in early May. Climate authorities, such as the U.S. National Weather Service, believe there is a 90 percent chance of the phenomenon hitting the globe in a moderate to intense manner in the second half of the year, after three years of La Niña.

“The development of an El Niño will most likely lead to a new spike in global heating and increase the chance of breaking temperature records,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. 

For the Amazon rainforest, this forecast is especially worrying. “The forest can become…