Climate Change Education Across the Curricula, Across the Globe

Climate Change Education Across the Curricula

Lesson Plan: The Locust Plague, Food Insecurity, and Climate Change

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22 January 2020, Samburu County, Ololokwe, Kenya - A locust swarm takes to the sky in a recent upsurge in northeastern Kenya. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the desert locust swarms that have already reached Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia could spill over into more countries in East Africa destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of crops.

As a High School or Undergraduate teacher in Environmental Sciences, Social Sciences, or Agricultural Sciences, you can use this lesson plan to teach your students about the desert locust outbreaks of 2019-2020, how it may be causing food insecurity in some countries, and the link between the current locust outbreak with unusual weather and climate conditions.

Massive locust swarms, sometimes as large as the size of cities, have caused widespread damage to crops in parts of East Africa, South Asia, and the Arabian peninsula since October 2019 leading to a potential food crisis in some nations. The situation is further exacerbated as relief measures are hampered due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It is thought that unusually wet and warmer weather conditions driven by climate change caused favorable breeding conditions for the locusts. According to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, “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 lesson plan provides teaching resources to introduce the desert locust plague of 2019-20 and how it is causing a potential food crisis in some countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Yemen. It focuses on how unusual weather conditions caused by the Indian Ocean Dipole could have led to favorable conditions for the locust breeding and that future locust outbreaks could become more common in a warmer world.

Thus, the use of this lesson plan allows you to integrate the teaching of a climate science topic with a topic in Environmental Sciences, Social Sciences, or Agricultural Sciences.

Questions

Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:

  1. What is desert locust? How big are locust swarms?
  2. What countries are affected by the locust plague of 2019-20?
  3. How is the locust plague causing food insecurity in some countries?
  4. What weather conditions are favorable for locust breeding?
  5. How has climate change affected weather patterns in East Africa?
  6. Is climate change responsible for the current locust outbreak?

About Lesson Plan

Grade Level High school, Undergraduate
Discipline Environmental Sciences, Social Sciences, Agricultural Sciences
Topic(s) in Discipline Locust Plague, Desert Locust, Food Security

Agriculture, Climate Change and Food Security
Climate Topic Introduction to Climate Change

Climate and the Biosphere
Location Africa, Asia, Kenya, Ethiopia,

Somalia, Yemen, India, Pakistan
Language(s) English
Access Online
Approximate
Time Required		 60 min

Contents

Reading

(10 min)

 A reading on desert locusts and locust plagues from the Desert Locust Information Service of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

This can be accessed here.
Reading

(15 min)

 A reading on food security and the countries that experienced potential food shortages due to the locust swarms of the World Resources Institute (WRI). This reading is titled ‘Which Countries Are Most Vulnerable to Locust Swarms?’ by Tina Huang.

This can be accessed here.
Readings

(30 min)

 Two readings on how the current locust plague is potentially linked to climate change.

 

Reading 1: ‘A plague of locusts has descended on East Africa. Climate change may be to blame’ by Madeleine Stone for the National Geographic

Reading 2: ‘Are the 2019-20 locust swarms linked to climate change?’ by Daisy Dunne at CarbonBrief
Video

(4 min)

 Optional: A video on the Indian Ocean Dipole which affects the weather patterns in East Africa to West Australia by Prof Tracey Rogers, UNSW, Sydney.

This can be accessed here.

Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.

1 Introduce the topic of Desert Locusts Introduce your students to desert locusts and locust plagues using a reading from the Desert Locust Information Service of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

This resource can be accessed here.

Use the Frequently Asked Questions section and direct your students to read the following short sections.

1.     What is a Desert Locust?

2.     What countries are affected by the Desert Locust?

3.     Do Desert Locust plagues occur with any regularity?

4.     How long does a Desert Locust live?

5.     How many eggs does a Desert Locust female produce?

6.     How far and how fast can Desert Locusts migrate?

7.     How big are swarms and how many locusts are there in a swarm?

8.     What percentage of the Desert Locust's exoskeleton is chitin?

9.     How much food can a Desert Locust eat?

10.  What is the relationship between locusts and ecology?

11.  Why do locusts change their behaviour?
2 The Locust Outbreak and Food Insecurity Introduce the topic of food security and the countries that experienced potential food shortages due to the locust swarms through an interactive reading of the World Resources Institute (WRI) titled ‘Which Countries Are Most Vulnerable to Locust Swarms?’ by Tina Huang.

This resource can be accessed here.

 Discuss with your students which countries are hotspots of locust activity in the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and South Asia and how the locust swarms are causing potential food insecurity there. The resource includes datasets and visualizations of vulnerable countries from the World Food Programme, real-time data on locust outbreaks, Famine Early Warning Systems Network, WRI’s Resource Watch platform, amongst others.
3 Climate Change and the Locust Plague Next discuss with your students how the current locust plague is potentially linked to climate change through two readings.

Reading 1: ‘A plague of locusts has descended on East Africa. Climate change may be to blame’ by Madeleine Stone for the National Geographic

and

Reading 2: ‘Are the 2019-20 locust swarms linked to climate change?’ by Daisy Dunne at CarbonBrief

Explain to your students how there was an unusually wet weather in East Africa over the last year or so. This included several cyclones which are rare in the region.

This wet weather and storminess is thought to have caused favorable conditions for the locust breeding. Further explain to the students how the wet weather and storminess is related to the Indian Ocean Dipole system. It has been hypothesized that climate change may be affecting the Indian Ocean Dipole.

Further discuss with your students how future locust outbreaks could become more common in a warmer world.
4 Optional: The Indian Ocean Dipole Optional: You may choose to emphasize the Indian Ocean Dipole, a climate system that impacts the weather from East Africa to West Australia using this short video by Prof Tracey Rogers, UNSW, Sydney.

This resource can be accessed here.

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