The Great Blunder of China
This story is not just about how a country went crazy, but also about how one action leads to a domino effect; it’s a lesson on how nature always has the last laugh.
The year is 2020.
An unimagined crisis has gripped the world.
While the source of the pandemic is a debatable subject, what’s not debatable is China’s history with extremism. When it comes to environmental issues, only a few are as notorious as our Red neighbours.
The story we are about to narrate is not just about how a country went crazy, but also about how one action leads to a domino effect; it’s a lesson on how nature, whenever man has tried to destroy her, always has the last laugh; and how the short-sightedness of a few endangers the lives of many.
Sit tight, grab a tub of popcorn, for this one’s gonna be a hell of a story.
The Great Chinese Famine
The Great Leap Forward, an economic project started in China in the late ’50s sought to transform China from an agriculture-based economy to an industrial superpower.
The then Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, was obsessed with competing with the Soviet Union (Russia + other countries), England and many others to form a bolder and more vibrant economy in every sense.
While the economic reconstruction was taking place at a break-neck pace, the public health systems remained a cause of great concern. The country was plagued with infections of the highest order: Cholera, TB, polio, smallpox, etc. were killing people in the thousands.
The Government officials were worried. Economic progress could not happen if most people were falling sick and were not able to work. After all, industrialisation required lots and lots of manual work.
Something had to be done.
A campaign called The Four Pest was launched.
The aim was to eradicate four pests: flies, cockroaches, rats and sparrows.
Now, now. Calling the other three pests is still okay. But, sparrows?
Just like the roaches and rats spread infections, sparrows consume food grains - lots and lots of them.
And, a human gotta eat to be healthy, right?
The genius leader, Mr. Mao, and his Chinese punters wanted to eliminate hunger and infection spread in one go!
And thus, The Great Sparrow Campaign started.
The only problem - nature does not bow to the will of man. While we are master manipulators of our environment (and the only species capable of doing so), there is so much that we still don’t understand.
In their hubris, the Chinese waged a war on sparrows.
Sparrows were hunted, poisoned and killed in the most barbaric ways possible. They were declared to be “public animals of capitalism” (yes, animals, not enemies - even we found the phrase weird).
Schools had programs that taught kids how to hunt and kill sparrows. Big industries committed to the war. Contests were held and prizes were distributed on the basis of killings.
Yes, complete madness. Absolutely crazy.
The result?
Sparrows became extinct in China.
And they also became the No.1 cause of The Great Famine of 1961.
But how are sparrows responsible for the famine crisis? What actually connects the famine and these birds?
Simple.
The sparrows did not just eat grains. They also ate insects. Insects that harmed the grains and damaged the crops.
With sparrows no more as watchdogs, the insects (mainly locusts) damaged and cleaned away 100s of acres of fields.
Naturally, the agricultural output was disastrously low. Things got so out of hand that the Government had to import sparrows from the Soviet Union.
But the damage was done. The Chinese population had to face the worst famine; a crisis that took almost 30 million lives. Karma?
The campaign and its results bring to surface one of the most important subjects of this century - the relationship between humans and nature.
Every time a country refuses to address its environmental issues, it takes a step forward to self-made disasters. Every time the people of a country do not demand environmental accountability from their government, they invite more natural calamities.
It’s high time that citizens around the world understand the importance of preserving this planet. Not all of us will be going to Mars with Musk, after all. Will we?
The story broke our heart a bit.
That’s all from us today. We sure had a tough time researching this piece - not around the technical aspects, but reading about the gory details, and imagining the horrors of birds and humans alike.
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have made some claims around data in this story basis news articles. The Chinese administration has done a good job in keeping the whole thing quiet, and not a lot of data is available around it. Hence, we are not sure about the accuracy of it (but it is in the right ballpark).