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Environmental Disasters in History

Case Study 2: Sparrows & Strife

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By Arjun Singh |

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Substack⁠

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“The country was under tremendous turmoil with reports of folks turning to cannibalism, and poverty taking over the nation.”

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ਸਉ ਮਣੁ ਹਸਤੀ ਘਿਉ ਗੁੜੁ ਖਾਵੈ ਪੰਜਿ ਸੈ ਦਾਣਾ ਖਾਇ ॥

The elephant eats a hundred pounds of ghee and molasses, and five hundred pounds of corn.

ਡਕੈ ਫੂਕੈ ਖੇਹ ਉਡਾਵੈ ਸਾਹਿ ਗਇਐ ਪਛੁਤਾਇ ॥

He belches and grunts and scatters dust, and when the breath leaves his body, he regrets it.

ਅੰਧੀ ਫੂਕਿ ਮੁਈ ਦੇਵਾਨੀ ॥

The blind and arrogant die insane.

ਖਸਮਿ ਮਿਟੀ ਫਿਰਿ ਭਾਨੀ ॥

Submitting to the Lord, one become pleasing to Him.

ਅਧੁ ਗੁਲ੍ਹਾ ਚਿੜੀ ਕਾ ਚੁਗਣੁ ਗੈਣਿ ਚੜੀ ਬਿਲਲਾਇ ॥

The sparrow eats only half a grain, then it flies through the sky and chirps.

ਖਸਮੈ ਭਾਵੈ ਓਹਾ ਚੰਗੀ ਜਿ ਕਰੇ ਖੁਦਾਇ ਖੁਦਾਇ ॥

The good sparrow is pleasing to her Lord and Master, if she chirps the Name of the Lord.

Raag Malaar - Guru Nanak Dev Ji - Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji -

Ang 1286⁠

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Preliminary Facts

Mao Zedong led the communist party of China in 1927, which eventually gained control 20 years later. Once in power, the Soviet model of policy and strategy was followed by focusing mainly on heavy industry and agricultural gains. Mao however decided to stay away from the policy of peaceful coexistence with other countries that was part of Lenin’s approach, and planned instead to advance communism at a global scale¹. This is what ultimately led to the existence of Maoism², and was one of the major factors leading to the “Great Leap Forward” - Mao’s plan to increase economic prosperity in China by turning the country from an agricultural to an industrial society in just five years.

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Photo by

Abhijit Sinha⁠

Unsplash⁠

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Centrally Planned Goals & Motivations

Mao’s motivation with the Great Leap Forward was mainly that of creating an industrialized economy to match up to the west, alongside reinforcing Socialist³ ethics amongst the population.

As part of the Great Leap Forward, something called the “Four Pests campaign” was introduced to eradicate the four types of pests (flies, mosquitoes, rats, sparrows) that were deemed to be a nuisance at the time by Mao. This was specifically because they were prone to spread disease and consume the food and crops that people needed. Disease was widely spread across China at the time, and although the government originally implemented mass vaccinations and sanitation systems, resources were limited which led to the idea of eradicating the primary pests⁴.

Specifically, sparrows were targeted because of their diet that consisted of a lot of grain (which was used to produce many foods). Mao’s thought process was that if most of the sparrows were eradicated, there would be an abundance of food and grain for the human population, and the rates of disease would go down significantly.

This led to something called the “Great Sparrow Campaign”, where people of all ages would kill sparrows by preventing them to land, tearing down their nests, and shooting them in the sky. As part of this campaign, which was heavily pushed by the government, hundreds of millions of sparrows were killed⁵. Incentives such as additional food rations, work points, public recognition were provided to enforce the eradication of sparrows. Additionally, the pressure to conform was prevalent as there were potential political consequences otherwise.

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Detrimental Outcomes

A while after the campaign had settled, the government realized that although the sparrows’ diet consisted heavily of grain seeds, they also ate insects. This meant that since the insect population is ultimately controlled by sparrows, and there were no longer any sparrows, the insect population went out of control. The crops that were intended on being used for human consumption to increase food availability were instead eaten by the mass population of insects⁶.

The crops were consumed by the insects at such a massive scale that it was one of the factors that led to the “Great Famine of China” during the years of 1959 to 1961. The human population ran out of things to eat and mass starvation overtook the country. The extent of this famine cannot be understated, as the Chinese government reported over 15 million deaths due to starvation, although there are scholars that have estimated this number to be closer to 78 million deaths⁷. The country was under tremendous turmoil with reports of folks turning to cannibalism, and poverty taking over the nation.

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Lessons

We can conclude from this case study that playing with mother nature is a tricky and (in this case) deadly game, in which the natural ecosystem was unfortunately destroyed and millions of people died.

Although in this case we can agree that Mao and the government may have had good intentions with The Great Leap Forward, relying on a centrally planned state to make decisions for the entire nation may not always be the best system for bringing about positive change with their policies. It is crucial to take into account long term ramifications of certain decisions, along with all of the affected factors and parties.

To conclude, trifling with the natural ecosystem can be detrimental to human health, as was the case here, which resulted in the mass deaths due to the lack of nutrition and food. However, throughout history we can see this also present in low quality air and water, harming biodiversity, natural landscapes, and climate regulation. Should the state be in charge of making decisions at scales as massive as this one?

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Endnotes

Quick overview of the Communism Party in China and it’s timeline surround major political events

Link: Communism and Computer Ethics: Communism in China

Raw:

https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/2007-08/communism-computing-china/china.html⁠

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Document from the India Ministry of Home Affairs with some general facts about Maoism along with it’s global interconnectedness

Link: What is Maoism?

Raw:

https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/LWE_FAQS_22012016.pdf⁠

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National Geographic definition of Socialism for a student in grades 5-8

Link: Encyclopedic Entry: Socialism

Raw:

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/socialism/⁠

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Article from a diverse academic group about the societal detriments of the “Four Pests Campaign” along with the government’s initial motivations behind this

Link: The Four Pests Campaign of China

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https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Four-Pests-of-China⁠

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Informative video with engaging graphics to show a visual of the famine

Link: When Sparrows Fall: China's Great Famine | Asian Century

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojOmUWLDG18⁠

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Informative article on the sequence of tragic events from this disaster

Link: The Great Sparrow Campaign was the Start of the Greatest Mass Starvation in History

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