Climate change is an overwhelming threat capable of deadly and cataclysmic consequences across the whole globe. The risks posed by climate change are much higher than we can comprehend from glaciers melting in the arctic regions at alarming rates to extreme temperatures all over the world. All of these disastrous consequences posed by climate change can be fatal and extremely deadly if not addressed swiftly. One of the most harmful impacts of climate change sprung up this year. Although it already had its roots laid, back in the fall of 2018. The effects of those changes are now in full swing as billions of hungry locusts descend upon food-bearing crops in the regions of east Africa and southwest Asia where poverty and low sustenances for its ever-increasing population is already a huge problem.

The root of this problem has its origins in May of 2018 where a massive cyclone passed over the Rub’Al Khali desert. An enormous stretch of unbroken sand also called “The Empty Quarter Lakes” formed between the dunes of sand, and for the first time in 20 years, the desert filled with water. Five months later, another cyclone hit the same region, “The Cyclone Luban.” Over the next year, powerful hurricanes kept coming out of the Arabian sea at a frequency not ever seen before. The rate of those cyclones caused catastrophic flooding in typically dry regions. One of these regions being East Africa suffered the most devastating impact of this sudden change in climate, leading to disastrous flooding in the area in 2018 and 2019 affecting more than a million people and killing thousands as well.

Floods and landslides ripped through areas of West Pokot on 23rd November 2019

 The diversity and complexity of the problems brought by climate change don’t only end here. There is an even bigger threat looming across the region, more concerning than the catastrophic cyclones sweeping across the entire territory of southwest Asia and east Africa at alarming rates. And that problem is the overwhelming increase in the population of hungry locusts devouring food-bearing crops and leaving already developing countries with minimal sustenances for the future. This overwhelming increase in locust population was seen as a plague of biblical proportions leading to an unprecedented threat to food security with millions and billions of locusts ravaging across the region with no end in sight.

Source: National Geography
Desert locusts have swarmed into Kenya in millions from Somalia and Ethiopia, where such numbers haven’t been seen in a quarter-century. The insects are decimating farmland, threatening an already vulnerable region.

The regions affected by these cyclones have a type of grasshopper called a desert locust, it lives across the areas of Northwest Africa to Western Asia. A typical desert locust usually spends its time alone in what’s called their “solitary phase.” They only really meet with others to mate and then again proceed into their solitary phase. But due to the sudden change in weather, it can lead to a transformation amongst these normally harmless insects. If a normally dry area becomes unusually lush with vegetation as it would after heavy rains, these insects would start to congregate. That sudden crowding triggers a hormone leading to a mental and a physical change within the insects. The transformation begins with a shift in colour from a muddled brown colour to a bright yellow, the locust’s body shrinks and its endurance increases, which optimizes it for flight. It’s brain grows, and so does it’s appetite. This phase is known as the Gregarious phase. The locusts continue to eat and bread, leaving their eggs in the damp soil, and when those eggs hatch, they form what is known as “hopper bands.” Millions of non-flying locusts were swarming together and moving as a unit decimating any food crops or vegetation in their way, and eventually, these insects developed wings. Once they take flight, they are almost impossible to stop.

Source: Wired
A solitary male desert locust (left) facing a gregarious male(right) of the same age

A single Locusts swarm contains up to 150 million insects per square kilometre; each insect consumes its body weight in vegetation daily, and a crowd of that size eats more food than 35,000 people. Since late 2019, East Africa has been experiencing its worst locust outbreak in decades and reports of swarms as big as 2,400 square kilometres in 2020 have been seen. A swarm of that size is capable of eating as much food as tens of millions of people. The swarms of bugs have also been reported to be so thick that airplanes have been forced to divert their course. These billions of ravenous insects have destroyed 500,000 acres of food crops in Ethiopia, leaving millions of people in need of food aid. This plague is threatening already food-scarce regions with famine as millions of people are left with food insecurities. This ravenous plague of locusts only seems to be spreading as in February of 2020, Pakistan declared a state of emergency. By late May, swarms had reached parts of northern India for the first time since 1962.

Source: Fox News
Swarms of locust attack a residential areas of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, Monday, May 25, 2020.

The most significant factor responsible for this ravenous plague of biblical proportions brought by these ferocious insects is the sudden change in the climate. Researchers think that due to the overwhelming increase of cyclones in normally dry areas, which led to an unusual amount of vegetation, is the root of the problem as locusts reproduce exponentially when the weather is in their favour, and this is precisely what has happened. Swarms formed in East Africa, which itself experienced historic flooding in 2018 and 2019, from rains caused by a bizarre increase in temperature of the Indian Ocean. A single storm is not close enough to bring swarms of locusts of this size. It takes a series of them, which used to be extremely rare in this region; however, unfortunately, due to climate change, extreme weather that used to be rare is suddenly becoming more common. This radical change in weather resulting in catastrophic flooding and eventually food scarcity and famines in regions is one of the many deadly consequences of climate change. This change in climate could mean more cyclones in the desert, more greenery where there once was sand and more breeding grounds for locusts. All of these catastrophic changes brought by climate change would eventually lead back to more plagues of unimaginable scales brought by these ferocious insects under these circumstances. These plagues can only lead to more famines and deaths of millions of people which is an indirect result of climate change.

Moiz Chohan resides in Lahore and has recently joined LGS JT for his A-levels. He works as a writer in the International Relations section of Jayzoq in attempts to do his part in changing the world into a better place.
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