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City-Sized Locust Swarms are Expanding Across East Africa and Threatening Food Supplies
weather.com ^ | 02/19/20 | Jan Wesner Childs

Posted on 02/19/2020 2:35:09 PM PST by Red Badger

At a Glance

A mature swarm of locusts entered South Sudan this week.Warmer temperatures and more rain have contributed to the outbreak.Some swarms are the size of cities and can move up to 90 miles a day.

The locust outbreak plaguing East Africa has now reached South Sudan as swarms the size of cities continue to move across several countries, fueled by extreme weather and changing climate patterns.

"Studies have linked a hotter climate to more damaging locust swarms, leaving Africa disproportionately affected — 20 of the fastest warming countries globally are in Africa," Richard Munang, United Nations Environment Programme expert on climate and Africa, said in a recent interview posted on the agency's website. "Wet weather also favors multiplication of locusts. Widespread, above average rain that pounded the Horn of Africa from October to December 2019 were up to 400 per cent above normal rainfall amount."

The heavy rains were spurred by a cyclic shift in sea surface temperatures called the Indian Ocean Dipole, known as the ‘El Niño of the Indian Ocean.' The pattern also led to a record level of tropical cyclone activity in the North Indian Ocean, which some researchers have linked to climate change.

(WATCH: Billions of Locusts Descend on Kenya, Threatening Food Supply)

The locust plague is the worst in Kenya in 70 years, and in at least 25 years for other parts of the region. The swarms can move up to 90 miles a day and strip all vegetation in their path, threatening the food supply for millions of people.

"While climate change is a global phenomenon, Africa stands out for its vulnerability which is driven primarily by the prevailing low levels of socioeconomic development," Munang said. "Persons living in poverty face compounding vulnerabilities to climate change impacts because they lack the resources to quickly recover from its effects. In this case, desert locusts are ravaging crops in the field before harvesting, wiping out livestock and wildlife feed, and with them savings, assets and livelihoods."

A mature swarm of locusts entered South Sudan from Uganda on Monday, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Locust Watch. The movement is especially alarming because half of South Sudan's population already faces food shortages.

Aerial spraying is the most effective way to stop locusts, but aid agencies say there is not enough equipment or funding to adequately beat down the swarms.

Eggs laid by the swarms as they move are expected to hatch in the coming weeks and weather conditions remain favorable for more breeding, according to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development's Climate Prediction and Applications Centre. The agency warned that countries in Eastern Africa should brace for a second round of locust invasions in the next one to two months.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: africa; agriculture; food; locusts
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1 posted on 02/19/2020 2:35:09 PM PST by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

we have a similar vermin moving to red states and destroying everything we hold dear...effing libtard dummycrats.


2 posted on 02/19/2020 2:36:49 PM PST by max americana (Fired ONE libtard at work at every election since 2008 because I enjoy them crying)
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To: Red Badger

we have a similar vermin moving to red states and destroying everything we hold dear...effing libtard dummycrats.


3 posted on 02/19/2020 2:36:49 PM PST by max americana (Fired ONE libtard at work at every election since 2008 because I enjoy them crying)
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To: Red Badger

Pazuzu... Exorcist II?


4 posted on 02/19/2020 2:36:54 PM PST by Pearls Before Swine
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To: Red Badger

Back to the meat of the issue...

How did Trump cause this?


5 posted on 02/19/2020 2:37:49 PM PST by DoughtyOne (The DNC has a taxidermist on speed dial for Nancy, Hillary, and Ruth.)
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To: Red Badger

Locusts ARE a food supply...

https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-eat-a-locust-or-a-grasshopper


6 posted on 02/19/2020 2:38:45 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

If we crossed the locusts with vampire bats we could control the entire problem.


7 posted on 02/19/2020 2:39:37 PM PST by oldasrocks (Heavily Medicated for your Protection.)
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To: Red Badger

Aren’t they edible. Lev 11:22  Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. 


8 posted on 02/19/2020 2:42:05 PM PST by the_daug
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To: Red Badger

Camp of the Saints, here we come.


9 posted on 02/19/2020 2:43:20 PM PST by cdcdawg (Cornpop was a pony soldier!)
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To: max americana
Heh true

That joke would be even funnier were it not so true and factual

10 posted on 02/19/2020 2:43:28 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: Red Badger
"Studies have linked a hotter climate to more damaging locust swarms, leaving Africa disproportionately affected..


11 posted on 02/19/2020 2:44:57 PM PST by PROCON (Molon Labe)
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To: Red Badger; null and void; SkyPilot; Roman_War_Criminal; Lera; 444Flyer; WalterSkinner; Syncro; ...

[ City-Sized Locust Swarms are Expanding Across East Africa and Threatening Food Supplies ]

Yikes


12 posted on 02/19/2020 2:45:00 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: the_daug

You first..................


13 posted on 02/19/2020 2:46:17 PM PST by Red Badger (CWII is coming. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: the_daug

Yep. I ate some with some salt and garlic. Taste pretty good, and definitely not like chicken! Their real value, tho, is as edible garnish on top of a casserole or stew, then take it to a pot-luck supper. The locust gives any food a bit of a nutty flavor as well as built-in entertainment value. :)


14 posted on 02/19/2020 2:48:20 PM PST by Retrofitted
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To: Red Badger

Dayummm. Those are big locusts, if they’re city sized.


15 posted on 02/19/2020 2:52:13 PM PST by Old Yeller (Auto-correct has become my worst enema.)
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To: BenLurkin

Try making locust bread. Mmmmm....good.


16 posted on 02/19/2020 2:52:55 PM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: Red Badger

This has happened in Africa for 1000’s of years, warming has nothing to do with it-the locust life cycle does...

In a lot of places-like Africa-locusts ARE food-grab some nets and get ready to fill the freezer with free insect protein...


17 posted on 02/19/2020 2:57:35 PM PST by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys-you've got to draw a hard line"...)
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To: Red Badger

Luke 21:11 King James Version (KJV)
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.


18 posted on 02/19/2020 3:01:24 PM PST by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
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To: Red Badger

I do not believe this is the Apocalypse . . . but . . . they are discussing whether both famine and plague are imminent with Coronavirus and now locusts. All we need would be conquest and war, and those are always ready to go.


19 posted on 02/19/2020 3:24:16 PM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: Red Badger

Time to rewatch The Hellstrom Chronicle from 1971.

Pray for DDT to return!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067197/


20 posted on 02/19/2020 3:31:14 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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