El Niño: The signs point to a storm
The water in the Pacific is getting hotter and hotter. At the equator, the surface temperature is now over 30 degrees. That is more than three degrees above the long-term average. In *Der Spiegel*, climate specialist Christian Stöcker rightly warns: “This will be costly and deadly” (Spiegel, 11 October 2026).
The likely consequences could be catastrophic: even more droughts and crop failures in 2027 than in 2026, even more forest fires, even more dried-up moors and, in overheated oceans, even more coral bleaching. When will the German federal government finally wake up?
Christian Stöcker: “The cyclical phenomenon known as El Niño is much older than the man-made climate crisis. However, the fact that we are continuing to heat up the planet is taking its intensity to new levels. El Niño does not bring additional heat into the Earth’s system – the ocean merely releases heat that it has previously stored. But this is becoming increasingly significant, as we have long since dramatically shifted the energy balance of the Earth’s atmosphere.
A further cause for concern stems from the fact that warmer water stores less CO₂, because the transport of carbon to deeper layers slows down. So far, the world’s oceans have acted as an important buffer, mitigating the worst effects of our addiction to fossil fuels. But for how much longer?”
Twenty-six years ago, the World Bank estimated that an El Niño event would cause $45 billion in damage. Today, it could be a hundred times that amount, according to a study in the journal *Science* as early as 2023. Yet the global economy is not prepared for this.
We humans call ourselves Homo sapiens, the wise man, but we behave like Homo stupidus. We are destroying the very foundations of our own existence and completely thwarting the work of our loving Creator God. Yet we have long known that, as one humanity, we are connected as a human family.
The eleventh commandment today reads: ‘Respect the Earth and all its creatures.’ Yet we are driving 180 animal and plant species to extinction every day. Compassion for all living beings, ‘reverence for all life’ (Albert Schweitzer), is of crucial importance for our own survival.
On this subject, the physicist, computer specialist and inventor of the microprocessor, Federico Faggin, writes: ‘The idea that technology alone can save us is part of the arrogant delusion that has taken hold of the minds of all those who have lost their hearts and consider themselves rational’ (Federico Faggin, *Beyond the Invisible – Where Science and Spirituality Meet*, p. 281).
