My first question when I read this headline was:
With Passover Approaching, a Plague of Locusts Descends Upon Egypt
“how long before somebody tries to blame this on global warming, today’s universal one-size-fits-all bogeyman?”
The answer is: 30 seconds, as it is already in the article itself.
From The Atlantic Wire, bold mine:
Conflicting reports aside, Moamen insists that the government has everything under control. “Egyptian armed forces and the border guards are attempting to fight the swarm with the means at their disposal,” the agriculture minister said. “I ask the families living in the locust-plagued areas not to burn tires. This does not chase away the locusts, but only causes damage and could ignite large scale fires that would cost in lives.” Also, that smoke isn’t doing Egypt’s grandchildren any favors. Scientists anticipate that, as global warming worsens, plagues like this will also get worse.
Here is the referenced article from Nature:
Global warming may worsen locust swarms
Ancient records link a hotter climate to more damaging infestations.
Jane Qiu
Warmer weather in China has been linked to worse locust outbreaks.Kazuyoshi Nomachi / Science Photo Library
Analysis of Chinese historical records stretching back for over a thousand years show that locust outbreaks are more likely to occur in warmer and drier weather, especially in the country’s northern provinces, researchers say.
“The results are an alarm bell for yet another serious consequence of climate change,” says Ge Quansheng, deputy director of the Beijing-based Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who was not involved with the study.
The findings, by climate researcher Yu Ge and her colleagues at the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Jiangsu province, are published in the Journal of Geophysical Research1.
==============================================================
Of course there were periods of warmer and drier climate in Egypt during the time of the Pharaoh and the plagues, but don’t let that fact get in the way of a good disaster story.
The 10 plagues as they appear in the Bible are listed below with actual articles connecting global warming to the plague item following in parenthesis:
- Water, which turned to blood and killed all fish and other aquatic life (global warming increases soil erosion due to drought and windswept soil which increases river silt. Aswan High Dam in Egypt is already feeling the effects)
- Frogs (Exodus 8:1–8:15) (Once it was found that global warming didn’t actually mutate/kill frogs, now it is helping frog populations thanks to less severe winters)
- Lice (Exodus 8:16–19) (Head lice increase due to warming enhanced lice egg cycle)
- Flies or [5] wild animals (Exodus 8:20–30) (Fly population set to double with global warming)
- Disease on livestock (Exodus 9:1–7) (Farm Animal Disease to Increase With Climate Change, Scientists Say)
- Incurable boils (Exodus 9:8–12) (Global Warming: Causing Acne and Other Skin Disorders)
- Hail and thunder (Exodus 9:13–35) (The latest meme: Extreme weather caused by global warming)
- Locusts (Exodus 10:1–20) (The article above and from FAO: Climate change and Desert Locust)
- Darkness (Exodus 10:21–29) (Darker atmosphere due to soot increases global warming, but look for a reversal soon, because according to
scripturespeer reviewed science, CO2 is the real cause. ) - Death of the first-born of all Egyptian humans and animals. To be saved, the Israelites had to place the blood of a lamb on the front door of their houses. (Exodus 11, Exodus 12) (Kofi Annan says Global Warming causes 300,000 deaths a year now and Climate Change Deaths Could Total 100 Million By 2030 If World Fails To Act)
I think in the case of global warming and plague #10, the chosen ones will have to nail up a hockey stick over their door so that death passes them over.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Re. plague no.3 (head lice), I had intended merely to mention the fact (gleaned from a school nit nurse years ago) that these little nuisances greatly prefer the hair of females and children – apparently, adult males get them much more rarely. My own experience, of working at a school and not getting headlice, seems to bear this out.
But then I paused for thought. That “warming enhanced lice egg cycle” … The beggars lay their eggs in your hair. That is, on your head. Where it’s warm. So WTF difference will a fraction of a degree in the outside environment make? It may only be one of the incidental stories you mention, but I call total BS on that one.
======================================================
“Global Warming” would fall under the catagory of an idol, a false god. Something to which some have surrendered their some allegiance.
It used to be worse:
http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/hharchive/Show-43—Wrath-of-the-Khans-I/Mongols-Genghis-Chingis
What with the Mongol hordes and all.
(first of a 5 part series above, bedtime lullaby to remind one just how lucky we are).
Unbelievable – down in the references section Global Warming is causing worse acne!
That’s what must be making my finger nails split too.
#6.Incurable boils (Exodus 9:8–12) (Global Warming: Causing Acne and Other Skin Disorders)
A lot of people don’t know this, but locusts only come during periods of man-made global warming. The only reason they had locusts back in biblical times was because the Egyptians created temporary global warming by burning the entire Sahara forest. It never grew back and is now known as the Sahara desert.
True story. I’m having a bit of trouble finding proof though.
blogagog
You can find evidence at:
Sahara Desert Greening Due to Climate Change?
i.e. we can benefit from as much CO2 as we can put into the atmosphere.
Are the alarmists admitting it was warming in biblical times?
@ur momisugly Mark “Are the alarmists admitting it was warming in biblical times?”
Yes, but the Biblical warming was rotten warming which soon faded away. What we have with CAGW is multiyear warming, and that’s what counts!
Where were the locusts last summer in the US? Where?
Armageddon out of here!
philincalifornia says:
March 4, 2013 at 12:15 pm
HorshamBren says:
March 4, 2013 at 9:49 am
During the last half hour of BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme this morning, there was an item about the walls that surround the town of Ludlow in Britain. Parts of these walls, which have stood for hundreds of years, are in a bad way, and two sections collapsed during February
Mr Collin Richards, head of conservation and archaeology for Shropshire, is in no doubt as to the cause, saying “ … the climate change that has affected them over the last couple of years has wreaked so much damage.”
——————————————————
That’s a shame. I visited Ludlow a few years ago, along with visiting the nearby Roman ruins at Wroxeter (complete with the ruins of vineyard, I might add).
So I guess there are two solutions to this problem:
Solution 1: Use taxpayer money to fix the fricking walls.
Solution 2: Use taxpayer money to erect wind turbines across the British countryside, thereby reducing atmospheric CO2 levels back to their pre-industrial levels, thereby halting climate change and its consequent wreaking of damage on said walls.
Simple decision eh ?? Inserts Spaz smiley.
Lovely town Ludlow, sounds like they need to sign their stonemasons time sheets more promptly!
Sorry for 3 inputs but this may be relevant.
“During the Civil War of 1642-46 Ludlow Castle was a Royalist stronghold. In 1646 the town and castle were besieged by a strong Parliamentary force under Colonel Birch. Though there was fighting on the outskirts of town and parts of the suburbs were burnt, the castle itself was surrendered after negotiation. The kind of demolition carried out elsewhere was therefore avoided. After 1669 the castle was quickly abandoned, as part of the policy of the new government of William and Mary, to centralize control of the whole of England and Wales in London. In 1722 Daniel Defoe described it as ‘the very perfection of decay’.
The people of the town looted the castle for principal materials and rooms were soon roof-less. In the 1760s the government considered demolition, but in view of the costs involved, preferred to lease it in 1771 to the earl of Powis. A later earl bought the castle in 1811. Since 1811 the care of successive earls of Powis and their agents has arrested further decline, while in recent years grants from English Heritage have enabled important repair work to be done. Over 50,000 visitors now come to the castle each year.@ur momisugly
More here:
http://www.castlewales.com/ludlow.html
I vote for worshiping neither, but being respectful of the latter.
John Trigge (in Oz) says:
March 4, 2013 at 12:52 pm
“No sign of any increase in locust plagues in Aust,”
You had a big outbreak in 2010 because of all the rain.
” Widespread heavy inland rains, especially in summer, will allow plague locusts to reach plague proportions with less regular rain maintaining these high density populations. During these condition the life-cycle pattern may change to one in which the period from hatching to maturity is reduced to two and a half months.[4] Dry conditions will reduce populations back to background levels.[9]” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_plague_locust