A campaign eliminated billions of sparrows to protect crops in 1958; the birds’ disappearance accidentally triggered one of history’s most devastating locust plagues | World News
A campaign intended to protect China’s food supply became one of history’s starkest examples of ecological miscalculation. In 1958, Mao Zedong’s government targeted sparrows under the nationwide Four Pests Campaign because the birds were believed to consume valuable grain. Millions of citizens were mobilised to destroy nests, break eggs and drive the birds from the…
