Environmental and Health Effect of Locust

East Africa and Pakistan are currently suffering from the worst invasion of desert locusts in decades. Threatening agricultural production in East Africa, the assault increases the danger of famine in a region where 19 million people already face food insecurity. When locust invasions such as the current ones occur, journalists like to refer to them as "biblical" implying that these disasters are analogous to the ones described in the Bible or by classical writers. However, as this article will illustrate, locust invasions are neither acts of providence nor ancient disasters. In fact, they result from the interplay between natural and human factors and they have been of great concern to western governments in the 19th and 20th centuries, first within the scope of colonial empires, then as a consideration of international development policies.

During the second half of the 1890s, southeastern Africa was hit by a drought-driven ecological crisis. Using records previously unexploited for climate and climate impact research, and which cover the area from modern-day Zimbabwe and Botswana to eastern South Africa, this study explores the complexity of this crisis through an analysis of the spatial extent, duration and severity of the regional drought and its associated socioeconomic and environmental repercussions. This interdisciplinary study stands at the nexus of environmental, economic and social history. The records used include (a) British administrative sources, (b) reports and letters by members of various Protestant missionary societies from diverse environments across the study area, together with (c) local newspapers. Analysis of these materials reveals that generally the period was marked by a sequence of considerably delayed rainy seasons, which in turn negatively impacted upon the rain-fed agriculture. Below-average levels of summer rainfall also adversely affected the development of young crops. The drought was more severe and continuous in the interior of the region than towards the Indian Ocean coast. The prolonged dry conditions were accompanied by, and likely exacerbated, locust outbreaks and the spread of cattle plague (Rinderpest). We demonstrate in this paper that drought, as the original driver of the crisis, triggered a cascade of responses from harvest failure to famine and ultimately led to profound socioeconomic change.

Uno sciame di domande segue gli sciami delle locuste, che di tempo in tempo fra la metà del Trecento e la metà dell’Ottocento, si sono abbattuti su tante regioni del Mediterraneo. A farsi infestare e a infestare con gli interrogativi sono i due storici Elina Gugliuzzo e Giuseppe Restifo, e non tanto per procedere sulla strada della sola rappresentazione culturale di questi animaletti, così piccoli, così nocivi. Lo scopo del volume è quello di esaminare l’impatto reale ed effettivo delle
invasioni delle locuste, il posto che esse ebbero nelle vicende delle comunità umane, laddove le due storie s’intreccino, sull’arco del mezzo secolo dall’età medievale all’inizio dell’epoca contemporanea.

[Il Giardino di Albert-RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera-Rete Due] Le locuste accompagnano il nostro immaginario fin dagli albori della civiltà. Nella Bibbia compaiono fin dall'inizio e ritornano in diversi altri punti: di locuste si nutre Giovanni Battista nel deserto, locuste grandi come draghi compaiono nell'apocalisse di Giovanni… E se in epoca moderna il flagello delle invasioni di locuste sembra appartenere ormai al passato, altrove il problema ritorna drammaticamente e regolarmente ancora oggi. Marco Pagani, con l'aiuto della storica e saggista Elina Gugliuzzo, che alle cavallette ha dedicato importanti ricerche, ci conduce alla scoperta del nostro rapporto conflittuale, mistico, simbolico con questo piccolo e vorace insetto.