Facing a super El Niño, this scientist says we can look to the past for climate solutions
Indigenous science getting attention globally as climate change worsens extreme weather events
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change → face → events
A Peruvian researcher has turned to her ancestors' solutions to extreme weather events and climate change — and she’s not the only one.
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she → turn → events
As head of the non-profit Amazon Research Internacional, Rosa Vásquez Espinoza helps unite traditional Indigenous knowledge and modern science to mitigate climate change, regenerate fragile ecosystems and support communities.
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Espinoza → help → communities
“There’s so much space and need right now to look into our past,” the scientist said.
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scientist → ’ → past
“Into our ancestral civilization — Indigenous populations — and how they have already figured out systems to deal with these different changes in the climate and in the ocean patterns.
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they → figure → patterns
And right now, her country is facing what could be the most devastating El Niño ever.
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what → face → ?
The government of Peru has declared a state of emergency due to heavy, unseasonal rains linked to El Niño, but even before that Espinoza sensed things would be different.
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things → declare → that
“This is the first winter period where it’s actually been really, really hot, almost without any difference as to the summer time,” she told What on Earth? host Johanna Wagstaffe.
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she → tell → Wagstaffe
“Having just really intense heat, non-stop, throughout all of these different microclimates, it definitely signals that something is off.”
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something → have → microclimates
This year's El Niño could be the strongest ever, UN weather agency says
Less snow, less moisture: How a ‘super’ El Niño could impact central Alberta farmers
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Niño → say → farmers
El Niño is a natural phenomenon where the Pacific Ocean warms due to a disruption in trade winds, which blow east-to-west around the equator.
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which → warm → equator
It can cause intense rains and droughts across Latin America, including in areas that wouldn’t otherwise see them.
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that → cause → them
The World Meteorological Organization has warned that this year’s El Niño could be the strongest since the agency began monitoring the weather phenomenon.
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agency → warn → phenomenon
Espinoza is concerned about it causing everything from droughts and flooding to a rise in mosquito-borne diseases and disruption to food.
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it → cause → food
Facing a troubling future, Espinoza is hopeful she can look to history to provide answers.
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she → face → answers
It’s a cause that’s personal for Espinoza — she is of Indigenous descent with both Andean and Amazonian roots.
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she → ’ → roots
Her maternal side comes from a small Andean town named after the Chasquis, who were the messengers of the Inca Empire.
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who → come → Empire
And archeological evidence suggests the Incas could have important messages about weathering El Niño and climate change today.
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Incas → suggest → Niño
- What on Earth
Dismaying climate news doesn’t mean the climate fight is over
August was Earth's hottest month, European climate agency finds
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agency → dismay → Earth
A 2025 study found evidence that just under a thousand years ago, during a warming period called the Medieval Climate Anomaly, the Incan communities in the Andes adapted.
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communities → find → Andes
They moved higher into the mountains, constructed sophisticated terraces and irrigation systems and planted trees that made the soil more fertile.
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soil → move → trees
And they relied on other resources — like llamas and alpacas — to make the system work.
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system → rely → llamas
“Together, these practices stabilized soils, reduced erosion, and allowed large populations to thrive in the Andes,” Alex Chepstow-Lusty, a co-author on the study, wrote in The Conversation.
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Lusty → stabilize → Conversation
He added that the Spanish upended the system when they arrived in the 16th century.
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they → add → century
“This isn’t a simple story in which the Inca were perfect for the environment and the Spaniards entirely negative, but there are clear lessons to be learned,” he writes.
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he → be → environment
Espinoza points to the terrace and irrigation systems in particular as having important lessons for both Peru and other countries, given the flooding that’s already happened due to El Niño — and is expected to continue.
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that → point → Niño
“I think I have definitely come to learn from my own Indigenous lineage the water control, and the idea and the concept of working with water, not imposing over water,” she said.
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she → think → water
“I think that is something that our current systems, globally, have kind of forgotten.”
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systems → think → that
The Incas also had knowledge of crop diversity, Espinoza added, allowing them to plant crops at different altitudes, which made their food supply more resilient against various weather events.
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supply → have → events
While this kind of ancestral knowledge hasn’t made it into many classrooms and textbooks yet, she said it’s slowly getting taken more seriously.
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it → make → classrooms
“I am seeing that more openly and more spoken about and less taken to the side as, you know, a practice that is outdated,” she said.
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she → see → practice
She notes there are lessons to be learned from Indigenous communities in the Arctic as well.
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She → note → Arctic
“When we pair the traditional knowledge of local communities … while also making the best use of satellite and modern science, we really have a much deeper level of understanding.”
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we → pair → understanding
Fighting fire with fire
Myrle Ballard has been working on that effort in Canada.
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Ballard → fight → Canada
In 2022, she became the first director of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Indigenous Science Division, a position she held for two years.
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she → become → years
She’s continuing her work as an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Science.
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She → continue → Science
The traditional name for her community is “Obashkodeyaang,” which translates to “There’s prairie where the buffalo live.”
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buffalo → translate → community
She says the name is data for understanding conservation and environmental change.
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name → say → conservation
“If you were to go there now, to my community, it’s not prairie, there’s no buffalo — so what happened along the way?” she asked.
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she → go → way
In Canada, Indigenous peoples and their ancestors have traditional knowledge about how to handle another offshoot of climate change: wildfires.
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peoples → have → change
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
