The Big Wobble by Gary Walton 2/23/2020
The story of how a small plague of locusts grew into billions in just over 12 months stretching from China sweeping all the way to Botswana in Southern AfricaApril 2019, Iran is under attack from millions of locusts
On January the 11th, 2019, the holiest site in Islam was swarmed by a plague of locusts, forcing cleaners into action to drive the insects out. The Great Mosque in Mecca, which hosts millions of Muslim pilgrims every year and is the holiest site in Islam was the birthplace of a plague which in just over 12 months would grow into billions, stretching from the western border of China sweeping through Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, through Arabia the Middle East, northern Africa and all the way down to Southern Africa. TBW
On Wednesday, 17 April 2019, after unprecedented floods killed more than 80 people and damaged or destroyed 100,000 homes, Iran is now bracing its self for swarms of locusts. A locust outbreak in the Arabian Peninsula has been spreading to Iran, threatening crops and food security in large areas of the coastal province of Hormozgan, an official said. Director of a department at Horkozgan's agricultural organization told Tasnim that Iran is facing the worst locust attack in the past 40 years.
He said several swarms of locusts have come from the Arabian peninsula to Iran over the last 10 weeks, some of which have penetrated into farmlands of the province as far as 200 kilometres from the coast. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in February that a locust outbreak in Sudan and Eritrea was spreading rapidly along both sides of the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. TBW
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Into January 2020, East Africa: The most serious outbreak of desert locusts in 25 years is spreading across East Africa and posing an unprecedented threat to food security in some of the world's most vulnerable countries, authorities say. Unusual climate conditions are partly to blame. Roughly the length of a finger, the insects fly together by the millions and are devouring crops and forcing people in some areas to bodily wade through them. An "extremely dangerous increase" in locust swarm activity has been reported in Kenya, the East African regional body reported this week. One swarm measured 60 kilometres (37 miles) long by 40 kilometres (25 miles) wide in the country's northeast, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development said in a statement. TBW
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Bahrain is the latest country to be invaded by the Locust Plagues: Swarms of locusts darken the skies in Bahrain as they move eastward toward China. The worst locust outbreak in nearly a hundred years is spreading fast. The FAO yesterday announced South Sudan and Botswana, the first southern African nation to have been invaded by migratory locusts and in a separate, report the locust plague has reached the Western borders of coronavirus-hit China, the area of the plagues are vast and the list of countries now affected is enormous. TBW
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http://www.thebigwobble.org/2020/02/the-story-of-how-small-plague-of.html
