Climate Feedback Loops Amplify El Niño: Decolonizing Pacific Ocean Systems for Resilience and Justice
Original framing: “Analysis: ‘Super El Niño’ reaches ‘remarkable’ all-time record” — Carbon Brief
El Niño’s intensification is tied to historical patterns of colonial resource extraction, including the 19th-century guano trade and 20th-century industrial fishing that disrupted Pacific marine ecosystems. The 1982–83 El Niño, one of the strongest on record, coincided with neoliberal economic policies that gutted Pacific fisheries, creating dependency on Western markets. Modern 'super El Niño' events thus reflect the legacy of these structural inequalities, where marginalized communities bear the brunt of climate shocks while benefiting from them the least. The absence of this historical context in mainstream narratives obscures the role of capitalism in exacerbating climate feedback loops.
The 'super El Niño' phenomenon is not an isolated meteorological event but a systemic consequence of colonial extraction, carbon emissions, and the erasure of Indigenous Pacific knowledge systems.
Historical patterns—from the guano trade to neoliberal fisheries policies—have created Pacific ecosystems vulnerable to climate feedback loops, while Western scientific institutions have reinforced hierarchies of knowledge that exclude Indigenous perspectives. Cross-cultural wisdom, such as Māori *tauranga* or Andean *amaru* myths, offers alternative frameworks for understanding climate disruption as a relational imbalance rather than a technical failure. Future modelling must integrate these perspectives to avoid repeating past mistakes, where short-term fixes (e.g., emergency aid) replace long-term justice. The trickster role of *Anansi* exposes how the 'remarkable' framing distracts from systemic causes, while marginalized voices in the Pacific demand accountability from historical polluters. Solutions must center Indigenous-led adaptation, carbon colonialism audits, and artistic storytelling to transform climate action from a top-down imposition into a bottom-up movement rooted in justice and ecological harmony.