Farmers of old relied on El Niño
Modern ones simply put up with it
EVERY FOUR or five years, vast quantities of warm water build up along the west coast of South America. This phenomenon, El Niño, creates storms that cause devastating floods. The result is costly. In 2017, for instance, El Niño shut down northern Peru’s sugar-cane business.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “One man’s bane is another’s bounty”
From the October 10th 2020 edition
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