Something to understand is that locusts are not new to the nation. In fact, they are widely expected to appear. What made this swarm far worse than previous ones is the drought Bolivia is currently experiencing. The Latin American country has been forced to declare a state of emergency as it faces its worst drought in at least 25 years. Much of the water supply to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world, and El Alto, Bolivia’s second largest city, comes from the glaciers in the Andean mountains. But those glaciers are shrinking at an alarming rate, showing the world once again how climate change is affecting one of the poorest countries in Latin America. The SEI (Stockholm Environment Institute) informs us that, “Glaciers are estimated to provide 20% to 28% of water for El Alto and La Paz. Therefore glacier loss will have a considerable impact, which will be felt particularly during the dry season, when glacial water provides the majority of urban water" (Rocha).
Locusts begin to form during the dry season, once all of the plant life has all died and the grasshoppers have begun to run out of food. When the new locusts swarm forms, it will travel up to 100 miles a day in search of its next meal. While this is a miraculous number in it of itself, we need to remember that the reason why they are traveling is because they have eaten all of the vegetation around them. This will have a large impact on the surrounding area, causing their harvest to diminish even more than with just the drought. “Take a swarm the size of Manhattan,” said Keith Cressman, a senior locust forecasting officer at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome (For reference, Manhattan is 14,600 acres). “In one day, that swarm will eat the same amount of food as 42 million people,” (ABC News).
So what can the people of Bolivia do? At this point, it doesn't seem like much can be done. Spraying pesticides could stop the locust swarm, but it doesn't help to restore the crops that are already lost because of them, or the lack of water the country has due to climate change. Not only that, they don't have the resources to do much on their own, causing them to rely on the generosity of other nations. Perhaps most unfortunate, is that this does not seem to be a one time crisis. The glaciers will continue to shrink, droughts will more than likely continue, and locusts will become a larger issue than before. So I ask you: What can be done at this point to prevent this from happening again?
I greatly enjoyed reading your blog post, as it was very informative! I think that the connection that insects have on the environment during or following a disaster can oftentimes be easily overlooked. How long has the drought been occurring in Bolivia? Because of the effects that locusts have on the population and the land, is the urgency to supply aid greater than it was before (did the locusts create a larger threat)? Also, I question whether or not desertification has contributed to the loss of vegetation, due to overgrazing and farming on average land. I think that because Bolivia is suffering from a lack of resources, and its neighboring nations are also at risk, the international community must step in and provide aid and water. Efforts to restore the land in Bolivia should be taken and food and vegetation should be harvested in ways that do not harm the earth. Also, to combat the problem of locusts, pesticides should not be sprayed because they could have harmful and negative impacts on the quality of air and could possible exacerbate the deterioration of vegetation and life on land. There must be a long-term focus on the effects of drought in this region of the world.
ReplyDeleteI find this to a very interesting post, especially for being half Bolivian myself and having been to Bolivia several times. While resources are scarce and our landlocked status limits our trading capacities, the nation is extremely divided. On one hand, you have the predominantly indigenous, pro-socialist Andean highlands; on the other, the white/mestizo pro-capitalist lowlands (i.e. Santa Cruz) which is a recently developed region. The most Bolivia could do at the moment is invest in whatever trading capacities it can handle, such as liberalizing its borders with Peru, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Additionally, the eastern lowlands are rich in natural gas - but the clearing of the Amazon is a concern in and of itself. Several salt flats in the Andean highlands contain rich reserves of oil and ores, but fears that it will ruin the tourism industry and the land rights of indigenous peoples is on the table.
ReplyDeleteI think the best thing to do is look towards change in the bureaucracy, which has had a reputation of neglecting natural disasters when it was right on their doorstep.
Thank you for this blog post! I had no idea about the severity of this disaster. I too, am unsure about what to do about this disaster. I find it incredible that the swarm is consuming so much and I wonder the degree to which pesticides would actually help. I'm also interested in the fact that this is another example of a natural phenomenon that has been exacerbated by human activity.
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