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Author Topic: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD  (Read 884135 times)

Bruce Steele

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1900 on: January 17, 2020, 09:51:21 PM »
Sig, “Eat the locusts” seem obvious but I think harvesting and preserving them needs some educational material. Any ideas?
 We hear a lot about the number of wildlife casualties in Australia but ocean heating, the blob and the downstream consequences have sent the entire nearshore reef ecosystem in Northern Calif. into a tipping point that has killed billions of various invertebrates but humans don’t see what has happened.
The oceans will have their dieoffs in press silence.

vox_mundi

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1901 on: January 17, 2020, 10:46:02 PM »
We have become "the locusts" ...

--------------------------

Edible Caterpillars Become Rare In Drought-Hit Botswana
https://phys.org/news/2020-01-edible-caterpillars-rare-drought-hit-botswana.html



Packed with protein and calcium, mopane worms are a delicacy in Botswana, where they are stirred into chunky tomato and peanut stews.

In the north and centre of the country, the spiky black and green caterpillars are harvested to make relish and sold at markets.

But a regional drought has decimated the mopane population, sapping an important source of nutrition and income for rural communities.

... "The rains are unreliable and unpredictable," Mbakile said. "We used to harvest it around December and April but it is no longer the case."
« Last Edit: January 18, 2020, 12:14:27 AM by vox_mundi »
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1902 on: January 18, 2020, 02:40:28 AM »
Sig, “Eat the locusts” seem obvious but I think harvesting and preserving them needs some educational material. Any ideas?
 ...

I would start with methods used by companies like these which make cricket flour:

Bitty Foods
High protein cricket flour
https://www.bittyfoods.com/

The Cricket Flour
https://www.thecricketflour.com/
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TerryM

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1903 on: January 18, 2020, 08:23:45 PM »
The local "Butterfly Conservancy" serves Chocolate covered Crickets & Cricket Protein Smoothies.
I can vouch for the flavor and texture of their stir fried crickets.


https://www.cambridgebutterfly.com/2019/02/27/bugfeast-2019/
Terry

gerontocrat

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1904 on: January 19, 2020, 08:15:59 PM »
In the so-called developed world, eating locally-sourced food is the exception, not the rule.

An article about the USA Food Supply Chains in the United States illustrates what a complex supply chain has been made - & it excludes international food flows.

Sustainable?

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab29ae/meta#erlab29aes4
Food flows between counties in the United States
Quote
Abstract
Food consumption and production are separated in space through flows of food along complex supply chains. These food supply chains are critical to our food security, making it important to evaluate them. However, detailed spatial information on food flows within countries is rare. The goal of this paper is to estimate food flows between all county pairs within the United States. To do this, we develop the Food Flow Model, a data-driven methodology to estimate spatially explicit food flows. The Food Flow Model integrates machine learning, network properties, production and consumption statistics, mass balance constraints, and linear programming.

Specifically, we downscale empirical information on food flows between 132 Freight Analysis Framework locations (17 292 potential links) to the 3142 counties and county-equivalents of the United States (9869 022 potential links).
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1905 on: January 19, 2020, 10:04:59 PM »
In the so-called developed world, eating locally-sourced food is the exception, not the rule.

An article about the USA Food Supply Chains in the United States illustrates what a complex supply chain has been made - & it excludes international food flows.

Sustainable?
...

Yes, we’re quite proud of the massive food transportation system we’ve developed. ::) But the energy devoted to it is likely to decrease (or at least become more efficient) as the climate crisis deepens and more investments are made in “warehouse farms” — where climate can, ironically, be controlled — and as food product substitutions become more acceptable, more popular, and perhaps cheaper.
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nanning

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1906 on: January 20, 2020, 05:53:19 AM »
Sigmetnow, these 'warehouse farms' are interesting but I wonder how they will pollinate their plants.
To me it seems not possible to sustainably isolate the growing of crops from the ecosystem (outside). Some things have to give and deteriorate I expect.
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kassy

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1907 on: January 20, 2020, 04:06:12 PM »
Microplastics affect sand crabs' mortality and reproduction

Sand crabs, a key species in beach ecosystems, were found to have increased adult mortality and decreased reproductive success when exposed to plastic microfibers, according to a new Portland State University study.

...

The study found that with an increasing number of microplastic fibers internalized, crab mortality increased while the number of days that a crab held live/viable eggs decreased. Exposure to microplastics also caused variability in a crab's embryonic development rates.

Horn said sand crabs are prey for shorebirds, nearshore fish and some marine mammals, and their increased mortality and decreased reproductive performance following exposure to microplastics could have potential effects on species higher up on the food chain.


https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200117094327.htm
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1908 on: January 20, 2020, 05:47:27 PM »
Sigmetnow, these 'warehouse farms' are interesting but I wonder how they will pollinate their plants.
To me it seems not possible to sustainably isolate the growing of crops from the ecosystem (outside). Some things have to give and deteriorate I expect.

Today, they are growing fresh leafy vegetables in a warehouse in New Jersey, U.S..
No doubt the practice will expand to other crops as technology advances, because of the increased production compared to field crops, the sharp reduction of water needed, no pesticides, and LED “sunlight” individualized for each plant’s needs (which can be powered by solar panels).

This Farm of the Future Uses No Soil and 95% Less Water


The High-Tech Vertical Farme
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kassy

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1909 on: January 20, 2020, 10:31:28 PM »
I always wonder how well these things do for micronutrients.

Long ago dutch tomato farmers bred tomatoes to the most cost effective. Round, red and heavy because they got paid per weight. The germans then revolted against the Wasserbombe and it disappeared but shortly for that i was in Spain eating these local tomatoes. So much taste. You could taste the ground in them.

It is not the same but i guess both micronutrients and the palate of nutrients they can grow of play a part.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1910 on: January 25, 2020, 03:17:45 PM »
I always wonder how well these things do for micronutrients.

Long ago dutch tomato farmers bred tomatoes to the most cost effective. Round, red and heavy because they got paid per weight. The germans then revolted against the Wasserbombe and it disappeared but shortly for that i was in Spain eating these local tomatoes. So much taste. You could taste the ground in them.

It is not the same but i guess both micronutrients and the palate of nutrients they can grow of play a part.

Good point.  I’ve had wonderful hydroponic lettuce.  I could see a rising interest in exactly what should be in the (limited) water these crops get, to maximize nutrition and taste — although they are no doubt studying this already.  Leading eventually to what needs to be added to offset nutritional losses in other foods....
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1911 on: January 25, 2020, 03:23:16 PM »
After a brief delay due to the sizes and maturity of the crabs, Dungeness Crab season opened today instead of its official start day of November 15.

Pacific Northwest crab larvae suffering shell damage from ocean acidification
Quote
SEATTLE (AP) — Ocean acidification is damaging the shells of young Dungeness crab in the Pacific Northwest, an impact that scientists did not expect until much later this century, according to new research.

“If the crabs are affected already, we really need to make sure we start to pay attention to various components of the food chain before it is too late,” said Nina Bednarsek, the lead author among 13 contributing scientists. The study was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

Dungeness sustain West Coast commercial seafood harvests typically worth over $200 million annually, and are a mainstay for tribal and recreational crabbers. They have thrived in coastal waters that in recent years have been found to have hot spots of ocean acidification.

Bednarsek and her colleagues — for the first time — documented that some Dungeness larvae in the wild already had pitted and folded shells, described in their journal article as “severe carapace dissolution,” and that these larvae were typically smaller in size.

They also found damage to hairlike structures that act as sensory receptors, and the researchers hypothesize this could lead to slower movements, impaired swimming and other problems.
https://m.seattlepi.com/news/article/Crab-larvae-suffering-shell-damage-from-ocean-15001283.php
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TerryM

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1912 on: January 25, 2020, 05:46:44 PM »
For a few years I'd harvest 50 each Saturday at Coos Bay Oregon (in season).


We'd cover them with sea water, then boil them in a pristine galvanised "garbage can" we kept on board. We'd break off the shell and hose out the nasties, then eat our fill and bag up the rest.
With a load in the fridge/freezer of the motorhome, I was very well received whenever I dropped in on friend's while heading up or down 101. :)


Happy Times, and good eating.
Terry

nanning

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1913 on: January 26, 2020, 06:33:16 AM »
^^
Did you kill them before boiling them?
Sorry Terry, I couldn't resist ;)
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TerryM

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1914 on: January 26, 2020, 10:27:41 AM »
^^
Did you kill them before boiling them?
Sorry Terry, I couldn't resist ;)
At that time the limit was 10/person/day - without a license!


Myself, a friend, 3 borrowed kids & 5 open net traps, with 5 salmon heads for bait.
One run to drop the traps, a return run to haul them in, then back on the trailer & home to cook them before they tore each other apart.


We'd toss the keepers into the garbage can on board the boat, then on land we'd build a fire under the offloaded can and cook em for 5 min. after they stopped "screaming". ???


Similar to the way they trap & steam lobsters in Newfoundland outports.
Brutal perhaps, but effective, efficient and unbelievably tasty 8)
Terry

nanning

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1915 on: January 26, 2020, 02:14:50 PM »
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/24/food-prices-shot-up-floods-spark-a-scramble-for-survival-in-east-africa
by Ginger Hervey in Nairobi

'Food prices shot up': floods spark a scramble for survival in east Africa

     From Somalia to South Sudan, torrential rains have devastated crops
          and made roads impassable, sending the cost of food soaring


“Almost all the foodstuffs, in terms of prices, shot up. It became a big disruption,” said Hassan, who chairs a community group in the village of Sheikh Aweys, in the Bakool region of south-west Somalia. “People are struggling to survive.”

A series of floods across east Africa has been the latest shock to the region’s food supply, wiping out crops and raising prices in the areas most heavily affected.


But people now face a longer-term effect, one that has been snowballing around the region for years: food insecurity.

The rains have drowned or destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of cropland in Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. They have flooded roads, making it difficult to transport surviving crops, and forced many farmers to abandon their homes and fields.


These countries were already reeling from extended periods of drought in previous years that caused poor harvests and depleted reserves. Some have also had to contend with factors like inflation and conflict.

Hassan said her monthly income of about £75 used to cover all her family’s expenses. Since the floods, however, rising food prices and slowing business in the village have meant her salary barely lasts until the middle of the month.


“What we’ve seen over many years in Somalia is, once a population gets displaced, there’s little incentive to return,” Maalim said. “[The floods are] emptying the breadbasket region of people.”
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1916 on: January 28, 2020, 10:05:38 AM »
A Plague Of “Billions” Of Locusts Threatens To Create A Horrific End Times Famine All Over Africa
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/a-plague-of-billions-of-locusts-threatens-to-create-a-horrific-end-times-famine-all-over-africa
Quote
Billions of locusts are eating everything in sight in east Africa right now, and every single day many more farms are being completely wiped out.  Unfortunately, authorities are telling us that what we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg.  In fact, if extreme measures are not implemented immediately, authorities are claiming that this locust plague could literally get “500 times” worse in a few months.  But it is difficult to imagine conditions getting any worse than they are at this moment.  Ravenous locust swarms that are “the size of cities” are consuming crops at a staggering pace, and this could potentially cause famine on the African continent that is unlike anything we have ever seen before.

gerontocrat

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1917 on: January 28, 2020, 01:29:45 PM »
It seems that the heavy rains were/are the trigger for the locusts to swarm.

And it seems the trigger for the rains is the current state of the Indian Ocean Dipole, also a major cause of the Aussie bushfires becoming so extreme.

All on top of the bedrock of increasing global temperatures.
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sidd

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1918 on: January 29, 2020, 08:05:30 AM »
Nitrogenous fertilizer is a big problem: farm lobby gears up to stop legislation

"In Ohio, for instance, an agency commission in 2018 bowed to industry demands and scuttled an effort to set controls designed to reduce runoff feeding recurring algae blooms in Lake Erie."

“Governments are pretty captured by the industries,”

"fertilizer use on farms has escaped most federal environmental regulations that apply to other polluting industries"

"researchers analyzed air samples near the country’s largest fertilizer plants and estimated methane emissions were 140 times higher than levels reported to the EPA."

"Use of fertilizer contributes to increased ammonia releases from farms and livestock operations, researchers say. A 2019 study published in Nature linked fertilizer to 4,300 premature deaths from particulate pollution annually,"

"The American Farm Bureau Federation declined to comment for this story. But it opposes any laws or regulations requiring the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions by agricultural operations. The federation — the largest organization representing U.S. crop and livestock producers — also opposes any EPA regulations on greenhouse gases as well as the adoption of climate change legislation that increases costs on farm businesses"

"Environmental policies for agriculture should go no further than voluntary measures, the Farm Bureau argues. The only role it sees for increased involvement of the federal government: giving more money to farmers for climate-adaptive technologies."

"agricultural pushback to federal pollution rules has been so successful that there’s less federal oversight now than a decade ago."

"A recent analysis by the Environmental Working Group based on records obtained from the state health agency suggests about 150,000 Minnesotans were served by water systems with nitrate levels that exceeded federal health limits in at least one test from 2009 to 2018."

"The first draft, released in June 2017, would have prohibited many farmers in areas with vulnerable groundwater from applying fertilizer in the fall — when contamination risks rise without plants to suck up the nutrients — or on frozen soil. "

"The Legislature passed a bill to block it. When Dayton responded with a veto, state House and Senate agriculture committees — including lawmakers who also worked as farmers — invoked an obscure provision to stall the rule."

"the fight dragged on, department employees and staffers with the governor’s office softened their messaging, made more concessions to win over farm groups and prepared talking points to deal with negative reactions from environmental groups."

“It’s a whitewash,”

"half the nitrogen applied as fertilizer is not used by crops and escapes into the environment"

https://publicintegrity.org/environment/unintended-consequences-farming-fertilizer-climate-health-water-nitrogen/

sidd

El Cid

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1919 on: January 29, 2020, 09:38:15 AM »
Nitrogen and phosporous fertilization is a real  big problem and mostly unnecessary. It causes more harm than good. Legume cover crops can provide almost all the nitrogen needed, and P is often enough for decades in most agricultural lands provided that you have a good soil biology. 

vox_mundi

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1920 on: January 30, 2020, 03:54:18 PM »
Understanding Long-Term Trends in Ocean Layering
https://phys.org/news/2020-01-long-term-trends-ocean-layering.html

Water layering is intensifying significantly in about 40 percent of the world's oceans, which could have an impact on the marine food chain. The finding, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, could be linked to global warming.

... Half of this rise is happening in tropical waters. Researchers also found that rising stratification in mid-latitude and high-latitude oceans of the Northern Hemisphere varied seasonally, with faster changes happening in the summer compared to winter months.

Additionally, inter-annual variations in several regions correlated with climatic events, such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation and El Niño. This suggests that changes in density stratification could be a key factor explaining how large-scale atmospheric changes impact biogeochemical processes, the researchers say.

Open Access: Ryohei Yamaguchi et al. Trend and Variability in Global Upper‐Ocean Stratification Since the 1960s, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (2019)
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sidd

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1921 on: January 31, 2020, 11:53:54 PM »
Tomky at the bbc: the oceans bite back

" ciguatera: a strange, specific form of food poisoning stemming from a toxin in certain types of fish"

" There’s no way to screen fish for it and no known cure, and it’s likely to become far more common as climate change warms our oceans"

"dead reefs breed infected fish food, and humans get sick when they eat the fish that eat it. While ciguatera initially presents itself as standard food poisoning, it eventually morphs into numbness in the fingers and toes that recurs for months or even years, and sometimes causes a switching of hot and cold sensations"

 “I think people will be catching toxic fish in areas [where] ciguatera was not prevalent before.”

" Whether due to bleaching, increased hurricane activity or reef degradation from human activities, he said, “I would expect to see ciguatera flaring up as reef health declines.”  "

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200129-how-climate-change-poisons-our-food

sidd

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1922 on: February 01, 2020, 03:37:16 PM »
Re:
" ciguatera: a strange, specific form of food poisoning stemming from a toxin in certain types of fish"

I was told and have seen that dogs living in the south pacific will not eat ciguatera infected reef fish.

We had a pot luck party on the Beach and before the village Chief rapped the reef tune in leaves, he threw a slab or two the two dogs standing by, when they ate the fish he threw the remaining fish on the fire and covered it with huge leaves. We asked and were told the dogs would not eat ciguatera infected fish. It's a serious thing if one eats an infected fish, Sally form the vessel ION ate a infected fish and they put their vessel on the hard and flew back to the state's for treatment.

bligh

kassy

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1923 on: February 01, 2020, 06:16:34 PM »
Why were whales increasingly caught in crab lines? Because of the climate crisis

the whales increasingly got caught up in fishermen’s crab ropes. By 2016, there were more than 50 recorded entanglements that left whales injured or killed. Whales got ropes tangled around their mouths, making it difficult for them to eat. Crab lines cut through tissue and caused infections.

Although whales and fishing had coexisted for decades, this was a new problem. So what was driving it?

...

Santora was studying the ecosystem effects of the marine heat wave, known as “the blob”, that was happening off the coast of California at the time. Heat waves alter the ocean’s upwelling – the process in which deep, cold, nutrient-rich water rises to the surface. The upwelling in 2015 and 2016 shrunk to just a narrow band along the coast, causing organisms to cluster there. Due to a heatwave-related decline in krill, whales switched to feeding on anchovies in shallower and shallower waters. In addition, the crab fishing season – an $88m industry on the US west coast – had been delayed from November to April, and came to coincide with the whales’ presence.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/01/why-were-whales-increasingly-caught-in-crab-lines-a-scientist-found-its-climate-crisis
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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1924 on: February 02, 2020, 12:42:53 AM »
Pakistan Declares National Emergency Over Locust Swarms
https://dw.com/en/pakistan-declares-national-emergency-over-locust-swarms/a-52224762

Prime Minister Imran Khan declared the emergency to protect crops and help farmers. The Pakistani government said it was the worst locust infestation in more than two decades.

... The desert locusts — large herbivores that resemble grasshoppers — arrived in Pakistan from Iran in June and have already ravaged cotton, wheat, maize and other crops.



Their potential for large-scale destruction is raising fears of food insecurity.

National Food Security Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bak­h­tiar said the locust swarms were currently on the Pakistan-India border around Cholistan and were previously in Sindh and Balochistan, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.

"The locust attack is unprecedented and alarming," Bak­h­tiar told Pakistani lawmakers in a briefing on Friday.

"Action has been taken against the insect over 0.3 million acres (121,400 hectares) and aerial spray was done on 20,000 hectares," he was quoted as saying by Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune. "District administrations, voluntary organizations, aviation division and armed forces are put into operation to combat the attack and save the crops," he added.
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kassy

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1925 on: February 02, 2020, 10:31:57 AM »
Loved to death: Turks and Caicos' battle to save the queen conch
By Gemma Handy

From a staple food to its use as a musical instrument, few things epitomise the culture of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) like the queen conch.
...
Except, for several days in January, there were none to be found.

Overfishing is being blamed for plummeting ocean stocks which saw conch off the menu at several restaurants across Providenciales.

...

Mr Bowen blamed a lack of action from the government, which still permits conch to be exported, along with watersports operators who allow holidaymakers to take home live juvenile conchs as souvenirs.

"They assume conch is unlimited but environmentalists have been warning about this for years," Mr Bowen added.

Conch has at times been the islands' biggest export. Florida, which is just 600 miles (965km) away and which has itself banned conch fishing for decades due to its own shortages, is a prime customer.

Turks and Caicos' annual conch exports have topped one million pounds (453,600kg) of meat in years past, equating to roughly 200,000 animals.

...

The shortage is echoed across the Caribbean with one study in neighbouring Bahamas suggesting the country could lose its conch industry entirely within a decade without urgent action.

Last year, Jamaica implemented a ban on all conch fishing amid a dramatic decline in stocks.

...

Conchs are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation, due to their slow mobility, habitat in shallow, accessible water, and slow growth and reproductive cycles.

By grazing on algae which can smother coral reefs, they play an important environmental role too.

But their numbers have to be at a certain density to enable them to reproduce, explained Chuck Hesse, who founded the islands' erstwhile Conch Farm in the 1980s.

"The female conch, like a cat, gives forth a pheromone to attract the males. If there are no males downstream to smell it, mating will never occur," he said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51285893

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Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1926 on: February 04, 2020, 12:40:18 PM »
More from Michael Snyder on the locust plague:
360 Billion Locusts And Growing – A Plague Of ‘Biblical Proportions’ Is Destroying Crops Across The Middle East And Africa
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/360-billion-locusts-and-growing-a-plague-of-biblical-proportions-is-destroying-crops-across-the-middle-east-and-africa
Quote
UN officials keep claiming that the number of locusts could get 500 times larger over the next few months, but I am having a really hard time believing that this plague could possibly get much worse than it is now.

Unfortunately, conditions are very favorable for breeding, and these locusts are constantly searching for new sources of food.  They will continue to migrate in new directions, and they will eat crops everywhere they go.

According to Scientific American, the breeding cycles over the next couple of months could push the locust swarms as far as India…

gerontocrat

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1927 on: February 04, 2020, 05:29:11 PM »
The same weather event spreads its consequences in space and time.

Indian Ocean Dipole + AGW
- East Africa Rain / Locusts
- Australia wildfires - habitat destruction
    - bees hit hard now and in the future
    - honey production
    - pollination impact

https://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/6594779/bee-industry-crippled-by-drought-and-bushfires/
Quote
Beekeepers are preparing for a tough year following major losses of floral resources across the country due to drought and bushfires.

Apiarists are having to artificially feed their bees with sugar and pollen to keep the population alive, with this year's focus on survival and pollination rather than honey production.

According to the federal government at least 19,000 commercial bee hives have been destroyed by fire across Australia, a number expected to increase.

NSW, believed to be the hardest hit, has lost about 7000 hives and 500 to 1000 beehive sites. The loss represents a 60pc reduction in NSW's production capacity.

The Australian government is providing $75,000 grants to producers, including beekeepers, in declared bushfire disaster areas but the industry is bracing for a difficult 2020, given that drought had already crippled many beekeeping operations.

Australian Honey Bee Industry Council CEO Sarah Paradice said about 1000 hives had been lost in Queensland alone due to fire, along with the almost 7000 in NSW.

"With hives that have survived, beekeepers have nowhere to put them, nothing for them to eat because of the loss of flora," she said.

Smoke from the bushfires has also affected the strength of remaining hives, with foraging field bees becoming disorientated and unable to find their way back to the hive.

Queensland Beekeepers Association secretary Jo Martin said the severity of fires couple with prolonged drought had impacted the state's vegetation and the industry's health was at a critical level. Even with recent rainfall many species of eucalpyt, a key food source, are expected not recover within 12 to 18 months.

"In Queensland we're estimating 90 to 95 per cent of our state crown land resources, food for bees effectively... is unproductive at the moment," Ms Martin said.

"The communication I'm getting from beekeepers on the ground is a lot of areas will be unproductive for at least a decade.

"The scary reality for us is there's about 45,000 hives that are needed in July to start the pollination season just for avocadoes and macadamias alone in Queensland... if we haven't got really strong hives going into the autumn months, effectively this year's fruit yield for things like avocados, macadamias and even strawberries, watermelons, blueberries... we could see some significant downturn in the yield of those crops, purely because the bees haven't been strong enough to go into pollination."

Millions of Bee Deaths Threaten Australia's Almond Harvest
Bloomberg-20 hours ago

The wildfires that swept across Australia's east and south killed millions of bees and destroyed vast tracts of forest where the insects feed, ...
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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1928 on: February 05, 2020, 11:15:13 AM »
Native Americans feasted on 'colossal' oysters over seven inches in length 2,000 years ago - but they have shrunk by a third in the Gulf of Mexico and could be wiped out altogether due to climate change

...

US researchers say the average body size of today’s oysters is just two-thirds of the size of these humongous ancient forebears.

While today’s oyster shells reach heights of around 4.7 inches, ‘colossal’ oysters that reached average heights of 7.4 inches no longer remain.

The reason for the decrease in size is unknown, but researchers warn that a size decrease in other fisheries has previously been a warning sign of population collapse.

The team studied prehistoric oysters from two archaeological sites on the seven-mile-long Crystal River where indigenous people occupied sites more than 2,000 years ago.

The team used oxygen isotope analysis on five of the ancient oyster shells recovered from middens and five modern oysters from the largest size classes, to estimate growth patterns and maximum ages.

While both sets showed similar growth patterns in the first year, modern oysters had grown 35 per cent and 38 per cent less in their second and third years, respectively.

The largest prehistoric shells ranged from 3.5 to an impressive 7.5 years, while the largest modern-day oysters had an age range of 2.5 to 4.5 years.

Their maximum lifespan of 3.5 years was also a full 12 months shorter than the colossal oysters, say the team.

...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7965937/Native-Americans-feasted-colossal-oysters-seven-inches-length.html
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sidd

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1929 on: February 05, 2020, 10:13:09 PM »
Re: The reason for the decrease in size is unknown

We ate 'em ?

sidd


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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1930 on: February 06, 2020, 02:32:12 AM »
Re: The reason for the decrease in size is unknown

We ate 'em ?

sidd

Preposterous allegation!

Sebastian Jones

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1931 on: February 06, 2020, 08:03:48 PM »
Re: The reason for the decrease in size is unknown

We ate 'em ?

sidd



Certainly in all other over exploited fish stocks, a decrease in size and age is an initial symptom of collapse. There is no reason to believe this would not be the case here.

Bruce Steele

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1932 on: February 06, 2020, 09:44:13 PM »
Rather than jump to conclusions like “ we ate them “ or “ over exploited “ maybe you should consider some sort of ecosystem explanation . The oysters are growing slower and they don’t live as long ,these are not exploitation issues
 There is work on foraminifera from the Challenger cruises showing a change in the shells of forams .

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/plankton-shells-have-become-dangerously-thin-acidifying-oceans-are-blame

River mouths are a good place to look for acidification on the east coast so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a change in omega ( aragonite saturation ) for the area around Crystal River. Maybe some other driver like temperature ,oxygen, or feed availability. I doubt fishing is causing the oyster to grow slow and die early. Kinda like an environmentalist conspiracy theory.

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1933 on: February 07, 2020, 05:50:33 AM »
Very interesting Bruce, I learned something. A very plausible explanation I think.
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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1934 on: February 07, 2020, 07:51:14 AM »
Think of the size of the pearls!!
Terry

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1935 on: February 10, 2020, 04:09:59 AM »
Next East Africa Locust Swarms Airborne in 3 to 4 Weeks, UN Warns
https://dw.com/en/next-east-africa-locust-swarms-airborne-in-3-to-4-weeks-un-warns/a-52312510

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned Sunday that nymph (baby) desert locusts maturing in Somalia's rebel-held backcountry, where aerial spraying is next to unrealizable, will develop wings in the "next three or four weeks" and threaten millions of people already short of food.

Once in flight and hungry, the swarm could be the "most devastating plague of locusts in any of our living memories if we don't reduce the problem faster than we are doing at the moment," said UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock.

The locusts were now "very hungry teenagers," but once mature, their progeny would hatch, generating "about a 20-fold increase" in numbers, warned Keith Cressman, FAO locust forecasting officer.

Swarms, which left damage across parts of Ethiopia and Kenya in December, could also put Uganda, South Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti at risk, making it the worst such situation in 25 years, the FAO said.

East Africa already has 19 million people facing acute food insecurity, according to the regional inter-agency Food Security and Nutrition Working Group (FSNWG).

... "There is a link between climate change and the unprecedented locust crisis plaguing Ethiopia and East Africa."

"Warmer seas mean more cyclones generating the perfect breeding ground for locusts. This is getting worse by the day," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
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Paddy

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1936 on: February 10, 2020, 07:54:33 AM »
The food price index rose again last month: http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/foodpricesindex/en/

Query: does the coronavirus outbreak have the potential to disrupt agriculture / food supplies? It seems like it may rise to a peak in the northern hemisphere's main planting season. EDIT: And one effect it does seem to have had in China (and perhaps may also be having elsewhere) is to cause more people to hoard food, driving up prices in the short term https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/feb/10/coronavirus-live-updates-china-goes-back-to-work-as-cases-exceed-40000-latest-news?page=with:block-5e40dd638f086a28115a8c39#block-5e40dd638f086a28115a8c39
« Last Edit: February 10, 2020, 09:01:41 AM by Paddy »

nanning

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1937 on: February 10, 2020, 04:59:25 PM »
Paddy, what is your idea of how agriculture and food supplies will be affected because of the virus?  Lack of human labour? Lack of transport freedom? Am I missing something?

I think there sure is a possibility for large disruption but it's too early to say because of some gigantic unknown factors such as the possible spread of the virus in India, Indonesia and the whole continents of Africa and South America.
The northern hemisphere is were most of the rich countries are and they are generally better prepared with better medical facilities and better regulation and information systems. But they likely won't be able to copy the Chinese feat of a massive quarantine and enforcing other hard measures.
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TerryM

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1938 on: February 10, 2020, 09:48:28 PM »
I haven't heard of food production problems - - yet!


Tons of watermelon and other fruits & vegetables rotting at the Chinese border due to lack of transportation has been reported, (sorry no link) & Chinese orders for live lobsters (& other shellfish)? have collapsed according to Bruce.


I think that chaotic conditions are about to overtake many supply chains in our globalised "Just in Time" distribution networks. I imagine that food imports, particularly foods subject to spoilage will be affected.


Stay Healthy & Well Fed - but no hoarding :-\
Terry

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1939 on: February 10, 2020, 10:12:28 PM »
Terry, Dungeness Crab are also a large seafood export to China. Dungeness ,unlike Lobster ,can be cooked and canned so although the fishermen are taking a price reduction they can still keep fishing.
 There is a lot of seafood shipped frozen in blocks that are processed in China and shipped back to U.S. markets.
Seafood is largely consumed in restaurants so any reluctance to go out for a restaurant meal will quickly reverberate back through supply chains.
 Even frozen product needs cold storage and freezer space that is usually contracted in advance so any hick-ups in delivery will plug up the supply lines.

https://tdn.com/news/local/coronavirus-disrupting-region-s-dungeness-crab-exports-to-china/article_8d167fa1-0a38-573f-adf3-f5bb6220efc2.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

 The ASIF isn’t a preper site but I see other sites offering advice on things to start storing , just in  case.

TerryM

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1940 on: February 10, 2020, 11:03:44 PM »
^^
Thanks for the correction Bruce, I was thinking of crab as I was writing lobster.


With no idea of how bad this will get, or how long it will last I'm not doing anything in way of preparation. Would a week, a month, or a season be adequate? How could one possibly know?


I missed the SARS epidemic in Toronto by ~1 year. I think that this one will be much worse. (1918)?
Prepping is probably sound advice, particularly if undertaken before prices escalate. Costco supposedly has good prices on bulk foods packaged for easy storage, and now isn't too early to stock up.


Stay Healthy
Terry

Bruce Steele

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1941 on: February 10, 2020, 11:14:43 PM »
Terry, You were correct about lobster and because they are live shipped, expensive and very perishable shipments to China from the US , Mexico, Canada, Australia and the Caribbean are all at a standstill.
 Dungeness Crab are also shipped live to China but because they can also be canned and are somewhat less expensive local markets can absorb the market shock.

Paddy

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1942 on: February 11, 2020, 06:44:14 AM »
Paddy, what is your idea of how agriculture and food supplies will be affected because of the virus?  Lack of human labour? Lack of transport freedom? Am I missing something?

Primarily human labour, secondly lack of transport freedom, thirdly closure of factories producing key goods like fertiliser (potentially).

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1943 on: February 11, 2020, 07:41:33 AM »
I think there will be no problems with food production. Modern agriculture is very much machine-based and since most coronavirus victims will be quite OK (sever cases are only 10-20% of total), farmers will be able to produce. Also, they do not need just-in-time supplies, most already have all the seeds and most of the fertilizer they need for this season. So no, no problems in production.
Transport could be the bottleneck especially if there will be some 'quarantined countries" like China. That could partially stop eg. cocoa beans reaching the US or Brazil soybeans reaching Europe. This could cause problems but I do not think  much.
Third, retail could also be a problem as people start stockpiling but that could be solved by rationing.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1944 on: February 12, 2020, 04:23:47 PM »
Another reason climate-controlled warehouse farming may become more prevalent:

Bumblebee Decline Linked With Extreme Heat Waves
Quote
Bumblebee populations have been hardest hit in warming southern regions such as Spain and Mexico, where some species already live near the edge of their temperature range. Sometimes it just gets so hot that bees die and fall out of the sky, said University of Ottawa biologist Peter Soroye, lead author of the study, published Thursday in the journal Science.

"Bumblebees are disappearing from areas eight times as fast as they are recolonizing others," he said. "They are the best pollinators in wild landscapes and really important for crops like tomatoes, squash and berries."
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05022020/bumblebee-climate-change-heat-decline-migration
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1945 on: February 13, 2020, 04:41:55 PM »
“As it warms, we’ll just move farmlands north!” is not a good solution.

Billions of Acres of Cropland Lie Within a New Frontier. So Does 100 Years of Carbon Emissions
Quote
As the climate warms in the decades ahead, billions of acres, most of them in the northern hemisphere, will become suitable for agriculture and could, if plowed, emit a massive, planet-altering amount of greenhouse gases.

New research, published Wednesday in Plos One, a science journal, finds that these new "climate-driven agricultural frontiers"—if pressured into cultivation to feed a surging global  population—could unleash more carbon dioxide than the U.S. will emit in nearly 120 years at current rates.

"The big fear is that it could lead to runaway climate change. Any time you get large releases of carbon that could then feed back into the system," said Lee Hannah, a senior scientist at Conservation International and co-author of the new research, "it could lead to an uncontrollable situation."

Large amounts of land, especially in the northern hemisphere, including Russia and Canada, are inhospitable to farming now. But already, some of these areas are thawing and could become farmland. Hannah and his fellow researchers wanted to understand what would happen if that land gets plowed up for farming over the next century. 

They found that, as warming temperatures push farmers farther north, the churning up of lands, especially those with rich, peaty soils, could release 177 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. (Most of the shifts will occur in the northern hemisphere because it contains larger landmasses.) That's more than two-thirds of the 263-gigaton-limit for keeping global temperatures within 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. ...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12022020/agricultural-frontiers-russia-canada-climate-warming
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wdmn

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1946 on: February 13, 2020, 11:31:35 PM »
The Blue Acceleration

https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/the-blue-acceleration-study-shows-humans-surging-incursions-into-the-sea/

Paper: https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(19)30275-1

"Humanity has depended on the ocean for millennia. Today, however, the rush to the sea is occurring with unprecedented diversity and intensity, propelled by population growth and demand for diminishing terrestrial resources.

A study published in January in the new journal One Earth analyzed 50 years of data on 18 kinds of marine resource claims, broadly grouped as food, material and space. The authors, from the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, captured the results in a series of graphs showing the amount of activity since 1970 in areas such as marine aquaculture, shipping, deep hydrocarbons, and offshore windfarms. The graphs all show sharp upticks in the past 20 to 30 years.

The authors call this race for the sea the “blue acceleration.”

“The current narrative is that we are about to move into the ocean as the new frontier,” lead author Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, a Ph.D. candidate in sustainability science, told Mongabay. “However, when you look at the graphs, it has started already.”"


Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1947 on: February 15, 2020, 12:50:45 PM »
“Swarms big as cities”: UN chief says locust fight must intensify
https://africa.cgtn.com/2020/02/09/swarms-big-as-cities-un-chief-says-locust-fight-must-intensify/
Quote
The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), which is considered as the most dangerous of the nearly one dozen species of locusts, is a major food security peril in desert areas across 20 countries, stretching from west Africa all the way to India, covering nearly 16 million square kilometers, according to the UN.

A plague of locusts has descended on East Africa. Climate change may be to blame.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/02/locust-plague-climate-science-east-africa/#close
Quote
Recent research suggests this pattern could become more common in a warming world. A 2014 paper led by Cai found that under a worst-case carbon emissions scenario, the frequency of extremely positive Indian Ocean Dipole events could increase nearly threefold by the end of the century. In a follow up study in 2018, researchers found that if the planet warms just 1.5 degrees—a target the world could pass within the next decade—extreme positive Indian Ocean Dipole phases could still double. According to Cai, there’s already evidence of the Indian Ocean Dipole trending more positively overall.

Locusts threaten to rob millions in already-vulnerable East Africa of food
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/locust-swarms-could-rob-millions-in-already-vulnerable-east-african-nations-of-food/
Quote
The swarms of billions of locusts have been destroying crops in Kenya, which hasn't seen such an outbreak in 70 years, as well as Somalia and Ethiopia, which haven't seen this in a quarter-century. The insects have exploited favorable wet conditions after unusually heavy rains, and experts say climate change is expected to bring more of the same.

Kenyan farmers traumatized as swarms of locusts devour crops in seconds
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5462496/kenyan-farmers-traumatized-as-swarms-of-locusts-devour-crops-in-seconds-1.5462979
Quote
The future is not bright for these farmers.

[One farmer] was telling me that, 'You know what Moses, we are left to eat from the remnants of what the locusts have already consumed.' Which, in turn, they're not sure whether that's safe or not. No one is talking about that.

In terms of their future, it's really not bright and there's nothing left to smile about ... especially the ones with small kids. Those are the ones who are really suffering most. And also the women, you know, the widows.

They really don't have an alternative at all.

In the eye of the swarm: the growing threat of the desert locust
https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/editorial/in-the-eye-of-the-swarm-the-growing-threat-of-the-desert-locust-1.975860
Quote
Billions of desert locusts have woken from their placid state and flown across two continents, posing a threat so grave as to push two of the countries affected – Pakistan and Somalia – to declare states of emergency. The numbers involved, the UN has warned, are “unprecedented”. If they are not contained, their appetites will trigger famine, destroy livelihoods for local farmers and undermine the food security of a group of countries with a combined population of nearly 2 billion.

Biblical plague of LOCUSTS to bulge to 400 times their size in Africa, warns expert
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1242596/africa-news-locusts-plague-kenya-Ethiopia-Somalia-united-nations-warning
Quote
The United Nations (UN) issued a statement this week warning it is the most severe infestation Kenya has seen in 70 years. Swarms of locusts the size of entire cities are currently sweeping across Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, with some as big as 37 miles long and 25 miles wide. Dr Rick Overson, research scientist, both of Arizona State University, said the locust population could increase populations 20-fold meaning numbers could be 400 times the current size by summer.

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1948 on: February 15, 2020, 01:52:53 PM »
Explain to me how something that has occurred throughout history (locust plagues) can suddenly be blamed on climate change.

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Climate change, the ocean, agriculture, and FOOD
« Reply #1949 on: February 15, 2020, 02:02:13 PM »
Explain to me how something that has occurred throughout history (locust plagues) can suddenly be blamed on climate change.
Because locusts thrive in a certain kind of weather which becomes more probable in a warming climate.