Worsening El Nino threatens Asia with drought, potentially raising prices globally

BANTEN, Indonesia -- All signs are pointing toward a record-breaking El Nino this year, which experts say may cause severe drought in Asia and other extreme weather across the world, threatening food security for millions of people. El Nino is part of a natural climate cycle of warming ocean temperatures, but this year’s is expected to reach new extremes of drought, heat waves, flooding and other climate-related disruptions in South America, Africa and Asia.Southeast Asia is one of the world's most climate vulnerable regions. It's already beset by an energy crisis triggered by the war in Iran. El Nino is already fueling wildfires across farmland, depleting water supplies for major cities and hurting fish catches in the region.Asian governments that have been drawing on their financial reserves to mitigate the war's ripple effects of higher energy costs and scarce fertilizer supplies have less capacity to cope with this year's intensifying El Nino, which is forecast to peak in December.The phenomenon may amplify other crises in Southeast Asia, according to Paul Teng, with Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, who said, “El Nino is only compounding all the other problems that we s...