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在暴風雨期間,由於包括房屋、食物儲備、交通和通信等基礎設施的破壞或喪失,1.1億多人受災,600萬多人被迫轉移;
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直接經濟損失超過340億美元;
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許多地區因澇災而使農業產量降低。而另外一些地方由於暴風雨和降水的缺乏導致乾旱期的延長、作物產量和水供應量減少;
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在延長的乾旱期,野火頻頻發生、分布廣泛;
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因為供應水受到污染或有利於疾病傳播媒介的環境,導致疾病發生頻率增加。
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" The(97/98) El Ni?o phenomenon that affected weather conditions around the globe and contributed to massive flooding along the coast of Latin America and in parts of the Horn of Africa and drought in Southeast Asia has gradually weakened since April. The impact of El Ni?o has been particularly severe among the impoverished and vulnerable populations where natural disasters can easily upset their tenuous livelihood security. Heavy rains and flooding has lead to thousands of deaths, loss of household assets and crops and caused extensive damage to vital infrastructure in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Somalia and Kenya. In addition, water related diseases, such as cholera and malaria, increased dramatically in drought and flood affected areas in East Africa, Latin America and Asia. In Papua New Guinea, drought affected mountain populations moved to lowland areas where they contracted malaria at higher rates since they"d previously had limited exposure to malaria.
In Indonesia, El Ni?o related drought has caused a cereal shortfall of over 3.5 million metric tons and large scale environmental degradation from uncontrolled fires in October 1997. Food commodity prices sky rocketed and became prohibitively expensive to the majority of people in the fourth most populous country in the world. In a complex web of cause and effect, natural disasters are often the contributing spark needed to light the tinderbox, or in this case push an already fragile society over the edge into social crisis. The El Ni?o drought in Indonesia was one of many contributing factors in fomenting the economic and political unrest that now exists in the country.
In most countries, such as Peru, Ecuador, Papua New Guinea and Kenya, El Ni?o has had the largest impact at the community and household level, particularly among the vulnerable populations. Natural disasters stress traditional coping mechanisms within communities and households. For example, in Somalia, where farmers stored harvests and next season"s seed underground, this year"s unexpected flooding spoiled the stored harvest and seed. Another traditional coping mechanism in times of household livelihood insecurity is the selling of livestock but in this case, thousands of livestock drowned or starved from lack of available fodder. Household losses of traditional coping mechanisms threaten the affected population"s very existence.
Most of CARE"s immediate emergency activities in response to El Ni?o are nearly complete. The more challenging and long-term recovery and rehabilitation activities are just beginning and are urgently needed on a national, regional and household level. Emergency response, not just in El Ni?o emergencies, must consider the medium and long-term development implications within the community to adequately address the needs of the people. In Indonesia, long considered a development-oriented program by CARE, the country office is facing issues of relief, rehabilitation and development sometimes within the same district when previously they only looked at issues of protection and promotion. Responding to slippage in the livelihood security of affected communities is a challenge that requires a preparedness and mitigation strategy in the context of a holistic humanitarian and development perspective .
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On US
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El Nino impacts important business variables like sales, revenues, and employment in a wide range of climate-sensitive industries and sectors. Overall, total U.S. economic impacts of the 1997-1998 El Nino were estimated to be on the order of $25 billion.
These economic impacts lead to both gains and losses among regions and within industries. For example, department store sales were up by five to 15 percent during the abnormally warm winter in the Midwest, but sales of snow equipment like snowmobiles were down by nearly 35 percent. Skiing was up in the West but down in the Midwest. In the highly weather sensitive energy sector, households and businesses saved $2-7 billion in heating costs, while energy production and distribution businesses suffered from reduced sales.
In fact, on balance, the effect of the 1997-98 El Nino in the U.S. could well have been an economic benefit, with gains and losses across regions and industries.
While economic impacts tend to cancel each other out at the national level, El Nino does cause real economic losses such as storm damage or crop losses, which are not offset by gains elsewhere. These are losses that can"t be prevented or reduced by a better forecast or mitigation. For example, on average, El Ninos result in agricultural losses approaching $2 billion, or nearly 1-2 percent of total crop output. In the 1997-98 El Nino, property losses were estimated at nearly $2.6 billion. Fortunately, these real losses are generally a small fraction of the economic impacts of El Nino.
由於預感到強烈的厄爾尼諾現象正在形成,我們曾警告稱2015-2016年的厄爾尼諾現象或許在另一個方面也與1997-1998很相似:都在新興市場發生嚴重危機之際來臨。1997-1998年厄爾尼諾現象於1997年6月開始,當時泰銖跌破其美元緊盯匯率,引發亞洲金融危機,最終蔓延到全球,其高潮是俄羅斯債務違約以及對沖基金公司Long Term Capital Management於1998年8月倒閉。1997-1998年的厄爾尼諾現象堪稱史上最強,也是唯一一次導致農產品通脹調整現貨價格下跌的厄爾尼諾現象(圖3)。此外,在1997年和1998年,商品價格普遍暴跌,包括油價大幅下跌。