Officials in the Northern Chinese province of Inner Mongolia have mobilized 33,000 people to stop a swarm of locusts 267 miles outside of Beijing. Concerned that the locust swarm may descend on Beijing during the Olympic Games, the regional government has set aside 4 million yuan for pesticides and large-scale spraying machinery. As of July 2, the swarm had infested 5,000 square miles.
"The larvae are in the hatching stage in the counties and cities near Beijing, Gao Wenyuan, of the Inner Mongolia's grassland office, told the Xinhua news agency, as reported by Bloomberg. "The plague is becoming more apparent."
Yesterday Xinhua reported (Google English translation) that the regional government has 200 tons of pesticides in reserve, four aircraft, 50 new large-scale aerosol sprayers, and thousands of small-scale sprayers to combat the locusts.
"We are aware and we're coordinating with the relevant authorities to look into the issue," said Sun Weide, a Beijing Games organizing committee spokesman, in the Bloomberg article.
Abnormal weather has played a silent role in the biblical tide of catastrophes to plague China in the run-up to the Olympics. Warmer than average weather in Southern China, combined with stormy seas and "nutrient-rich" waters gave rise to the algae bloom in the bay of Qingdao.
China blasts U.S. climate bill enabling penalties on trade partners
Wind: still enough to save the world
Comments View as Flat
amazingdrx Posted 4:50 pm
04 Jul 2008
Get those heathens jebus!
That'll larn them devils. Too bad falwell can't be around to enjoy this. Or do they have basic cable down there? Hehey.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin
Permalink
WWAGD?! Posted 5:59 pm
04 Jul 2008
So It Is Written...So It Shall Be Done!
Looks like swarming locusts are self-eliminating:
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S21/02/63A06/
Permalink
Wolverine Posted 3:46 am
05 Jul 2008
Locust Swarms Due To Agriculture?
Just asking.
In case anyone hasn't noticed, the host country of the Olympics, always cause serious environmental and ecological harms just to hold the event. The idea -- bringing people from different cultures together to play games and hopefully create a friendly atmosphere between the cultures -- is a noble one, but the motorized travel and nationalistic formats combined with the environmental and ecological destruction caused by the modern Olympics mean that this is just another activity whose time has long past.
Permalink
caniscandida Posted 6:48 am
06 Jul 2008
"That'll larn them divils!"
Right, and so is the excellent suggestion of John Bailo regarding, finally, cannibalism.
Yum! Haunch of pole-vaulter! Whoa!
One of the great disappointments of the latest big competitive events is that flesh is hidden, for high-tech reasons. The more they do that, the more they may as well let Data compete.
Meanwhile: Good luck to those grasshopper kids, but que' sera' sera'.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
Permalink