Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Thursday January 30 2020, @09:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the come-find-out-what-the-buzz-is-all-about dept.

Climate change behind Africa's worst locust invasion in decades

Locusts by the millions are nibbling their way across a large part of Africa in the worst outbreak some places have seen in 70 years. Is this another effect of a changing climate? Yes, researchers say. An unprecedented food security crisis may be the result.

The locusts "reproduce rapidly and, if left unchecked, their current numbers could grow 500 times by June," the United Nations says.

[...] "A typical desert locust swarm can contain up to 150 million locusts per square kilometer," the East African regional body, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, has said. "Swarms migrate with the wind and can cover 62 to 93 miles in a day. An average swarm can destroy as much food crops in a day as is sufficient to feed 2,500 people."

[...] Heavy rains in East Africa made 2019 one of the region's wettest years on record, said Nairobi-based climate scientist Abubakr Salih Babiker. He blamed rapidly warming waters in the Indian Ocean off Africa's eastern coast, which also spawned an unusual number of strong tropical cyclones off Africa last year.

Heavy rainfall and warmer temperatures are favorable conditions for locust breeding and in this case the conditions have become "exceptional," he said.

Even now rainfall continues in some parts of the vast region. The greenery that springs up keeps the locusts fuelled.

So already in the 2020s we have a massive viral pandemic with millions of people facing quarantine, gravity waves hurtling towards earth from the black hole at the center of the galaxy, massive forest fires so large they start their own thunderstorms and thereby "self-reproduce", Betelgeuse about to go supernova, Sol going quieter than it has been in 200 years (which is a harbinger of a little ice age) and now giant locust plagues that threaten to consume all the crops on an entire continent!

Can't wait to see what the rest of this century has up its sleeve!


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @01:20PM (17 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @01:20PM (#951159)

    Pray to St Greta the Grumpy, asking that she sail to Africa and glare at the locusts until they stop.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +4  
       Informative=1, Funny=3, Total=4
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 30 2020, @03:05PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 30 2020, @03:05PM (#951191) Journal

    Is there a St. Greta the Grumpy newsletter?

  • (Score: 5, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday January 30 2020, @03:15PM (15 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday January 30 2020, @03:15PM (#951200) Journal

    Daily reminder that a teenage girl is giving you shit aneurysms, not least because she's correct. And you call yourself a man?

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @03:46PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @03:46PM (#951216)

      Haha. Only stupid people follow semi-retarded teenagers that are still going through puberty.

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @01:56AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @01:56AM (#951548)

        Only stupid people shoot the messenger when they don't like the message.

    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday January 30 2020, @04:26PM (12 children)

      by Freeman (732) on Thursday January 30 2020, @04:26PM (#951249) Journal

      You're assuming the gender of the Anonymous Coward. For all you know, it could be a bot.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday January 30 2020, @04:30PM (11 children)

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday January 30 2020, @04:30PM (#951251) Journal

        In my experience, the vast majority of people who have a problem with Ms. Thunberg are men and self-identify as such :)

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @04:38PM (10 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @04:38PM (#951260)

          Yes of course, when us men decide to follow children for insights we definitely prefer them to be boys. They're only 99.99% as ignorant and deluded as teenage girls.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @06:58PM (7 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @06:58PM (#951334)

            Since she is simply repeating the advice of experts in the field it isn't following a teenagers insights.

            Pretty hilarious how upset she makes you climate deniers. Woops, sorry, I assumed your intelligence level my bad.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @08:10PM (6 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @08:10PM (#951383)

              Good luck with your experts. Experts said witches were to blame too.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @11:50PM (2 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 30 2020, @11:50PM (#951485)

                You're right, I'll go with my gut. I FEEL like you're a total dumbass, and my feelings are directing me to mock you mercilessly for promoting intentional ignorance.

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @12:52AM (1 child)

                  by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @12:52AM (#951515)

                  Have fun feeling better than people who know more than you.

                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @09:08PM

                    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @09:08PM (#951962)

                    I do, every day! I wake up some mornings though and the weight of responsibility and problems in the world can get me down.

                    Then I think to myself, at least you're not Runaway, Ethanol-Fueled, or The Mighty Buzzard! Then I realize how good I have it, but next I realize those people are still shitting up my country.

                    So in all being better than you is a mixed bag.

              • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday January 31 2020, @02:31AM (2 children)

                by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Friday January 31 2020, @02:31AM (#951583)

                Experts said witches were to blame too.

                No, that was priests.

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @04:25AM (1 child)

                  by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @04:25AM (#951645)

                  Yes, those were the top "experts" informing governments of their day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum [wikipedia.org]

                  Future generations will look back on the current politicized climate research with the same disdain.

                  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 31 2020, @11:41PM

                    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday January 31 2020, @11:41PM (#952056) Journal

                    No they won't. Know why? Because there was zero repeatability or scientific method behind the witch trials. Those were, in fact, the precise opposite of critical thought. That you compare the two says a lot about you, none of it good.

                    --
                    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 31 2020, @11:43PM (1 child)

            by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday January 31 2020, @11:43PM (#952057) Journal

            Genetic fallacy again. The source of information does not matter; whether the information comports with observable reality (which it does, in this case) is what matters. You don't get to disregard the message because you don't like the envelope it came in.

            --
            I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @08:50PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @08:50PM (#952491)

              Maybe we should wave around a "letter", not let anyone read it, then use a pallet of blank paper to stuff some manilla folders and say we have the best evidence right here.

              I do believe that is the pageantry these trogs deem acceptable.