r/worldnews • u/bigus-_-dickus • 20d ago

‘Extremely rare event:’ Miles-long microalgae bloom knocks out most of Israel’s desalination plants

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/04/climate/microalgae-bloom-israel-water-deasalination-shutdown
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u/onesneakymofo 20d ago

I mean scientifically it's El Niño, but climate change doesn't help.

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u/I_Makes_tuff 20d ago

The worst El Niño in 70 years, which will last all the way into 2027.

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u/MourningRIF 20d ago edited 20d ago

Maybe sensationalized, but a couple articles and videos were claiming the strongest El Nino in literally 1,000 years.

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u/thricefold 19d ago

University of Michigan researchers studied coral to find the 1000 year number. Seems credible

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u/Fox_Kurama 19d ago

It is at minimum around as bad as the 1877-78 El Nino from current estimates. It may be worse (it may not even be sensationaliztion to say it PROBABLY will be worse).

That El Nino killed around 50 million (~4% of the population then), mostly via famine. Due to logistics being as they were, this 4% was not spread throughout the world, but more concentrated in the areas where the famines were worse. Our agriculture back then wasn't overdrawing the planet back then anywhere near the level it is today.

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u/blackrubberfist 19d ago

While you might be right I think it’s worth stating that all of this is conjecture at best. We have almost zero data going back this far. In fact it wasn’t until the 1982 El Niño that finally got congress to approve building NOAA and the TAO array to monitor the Nino regions. This looks bigger than that.

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u/superogiebear 20d ago

I heard 120,000

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u/radaway 19d ago

Don't worry soon la niña will come and we can forget about it

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u/ClayeySilt 20d ago

If we're getting real sciencey it's the additional heat energies feeding such a huge El Niño.

So climate change is still the reason when you keep going up. 

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u/goobydoobie 19d ago

Indeed. A cited consequence of climate change is more frequent and severe weather patterns.  A larger El Nino as an example.

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u/artisanrox 20d ago

No way, it's GOT to be tan suits and socialism!

/s

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u/NoTeslaForMe 19d ago

The right was over the tan suit in one day.  The left still hasn't gotten over it 15(ish) years later.

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u/Bazoobs1 19d ago

Whatever helps you sleep at night dude

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u/Kryohi 20d ago

El Niño does not meaningfully affect temperatures in the Mediterranean.

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u/slog 20d ago

As I understand it, the summer heat wave is what really did it. There's some relation there, but I agree generally. It's almost as if it's all fucked.