El Niño not climate change key to drought that caused Panama Canal disruption, study says
The climate phenomenon known as El Niño - and not climate change - was a key driver in low rainfall that disrupted shipping at the Panama Canal last year, scientists said Wednesday. A team of international scientists found that El Niño, a natural warming of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide, doubled the likelihood of the low precipitation Panama received during last year's rainy season. That dryness reduced water levels at the reservoir which feeds freshwater to the Panama Canal and provides drinking water for more than half of the Central American country. Human-caused climat...