Locust Update: Winter 2021
Joel 1:4 What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; and what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.
Granted, the context of Joel 1 is the land of Israel. The prophet is giving us a preview into the future of the Promised Land.
East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, January 2021: As if COVID-19 was not enough. The spawn and spread of locust swarms are growing again. Kenyan officials indicate this is the worst outbreak in 70 years. Increased rainfall is being blamed as part of the reason for the outbreak.
The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is on location with updates.
“We saw very intense rainfall in areas of northeastern (Kenya), where normally it’s very dry. Normally there would be nothing there for locusts to feed on. They wouldn’t be able to survive there for long. But that wasn’t the case last year. And you got so much fodder which the locusts were able to feed on, and they were able to breed.” -Hamisi Williams, FAO Deputy, Kenya
Experts state locusts can multiply x20 over the course of 3 months.
The following quotes are from Keith Cressman, FAO Sr. Locust Forecasting Officer.
“The other thing is that they have this great capacity to migrate. So they don’t get stuck in areas when conditions dry out. They just simply pick up and move to greener pastures. They fly with the wind and can travel more than 100 miles in a day.”
“They can easily cross the Red Sea so they can go from Sudan to Saudi Arabia in a day, for example. They can easily cross from northern Somalia directly across the Indian Ocean to India and Pakistan.”
“Imagine a swarm the size of Manhattan in New York, which is not a very big swarm. That single swarm in one day will eat the same amount of food as everybody in New York and California.” -Keith Cressman, FAO Sr. Locust Forecasting Officer
FAO Deputy Director-General Laurent Thomas stated, “The last time Africa saw an upsurge of locusts approaching this scale, in the Sahel, it took two years and more than $500 million to bring under control. This (current) upsurge was even bigger, but East Africa is poised to end it, provided governments can keep those aircraft flying.”
By the way, they need $40 million more…
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/19/958543535/locust-swarms-threaten-parts-of-east-africa
The swarms are moving closer to Israel. Locust plagues in Israel are a sign of the end of days per the prophet Joel. Just another sign of the times…
Proverbs 30:27 …the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank…
Leave a Reply