
A “Super El Niño” Is Coming - And It Could Trigger Global Climate Chaos
From The World, the Universe and Us by New Scientist
April 20, 2026 · 15 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the impending super El Niño and its potential global climate impacts.
Episode 361 The Earth is about to enter an extremely strong climate phase that could cause major disruption on a planet-wide scale. This “super El Niño” - or “Godzilla El Niño” - threatens to make 2027 the hottest year on record. If it’s as strong as scientists fear, the weather event will bring droughts to some areas of the world and floods to others, causing food shortages and billions of pounds of damage. And with the world already warming faster due to human activity, the effects will only be intensified. To discuss what we can expect from the near future, Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet are joined by New Scientist climate reporter Alec Luhn. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
People in this episode
Hosts: Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet
Guest: Alec Luhn
Topics covered
- climate change
- El Niño
- global warming
- weather events
- food shortages
- environmental impact
Keywords
- super El Niño
- climate chaos
- global warming
- droughts
- floods
- food shortages
- 2027
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: New Scientist
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