The Campaign
The Four Pests Campaign was launched during this brader initiative in China.
What is the Great Leap Forward?
This pest was targeted for eating grain seeds.
What is the sparrow?
Citizens were encouraged to kill pests in these ways.
What are banding pots, using slingshots and destroying nests?
The death of sparow led to a population explosion of these insects.
What are locusts?
The main reason that sparrows were targeted.
What is their consumption of grain seeds?
The campaign aimed to eradicate these four pests to improve hygiene and agriculture.
What are sparrows, rats, mosquitos, flies?
This pest was targeted for spreading diseases like the plague.
What is the rat?
Schools and work units competed to collect these as proof of pest eradication.
What are dead sparrows, rats, mosquitos and flies?
The destruction of sparrows significantly worsened this agricultural disaster.
What is the Great Chinese Famine?
The campaign demonstrated the dangers of this kind of government intervention.
What is overly centralized planning?
This leader initiated the Four Pests Campaign.
Who is Mao Zedong?
This pest was targeted for contaminating food and spreading disease.
What is the fly?
The government promoted these kinds of rewards for participation in the campaign.
What are public recognition and commendations?
The campaign indirectly caused these massive crop failures.
The campaign's ecological imbalance serves as a case study in this field.
What is environmental science or ecology?
The Campaign began in this year.
What is 1958?
This pest was targeted for spreading malaria.
What is the mosquito?
The campaign turned into a national competition between these groups.
What are schools, work units, and local communities?
The campaign caused the deaths of approcimately this many people due to famine.
What is tens of millions?
Mao's campaign highlights the importance of this in agricultural policy.
What is understanding ecosystem balance?
The campaign was part of thie overarching goal to transform China into a global superpower.
What is industrialization and agricultural reform?
Sparrows were killed in this unusual way during the campaign.
What is scaring them so they could not land and eventually died of exhaustion?
This specific method was used to scare sparrows into continuous flight.
What is banging pots and pans?
After realizing the mistake with the sparrows, Mao went after this pest.
What is the bed bug?
The Four Pests Campaign is often criticized for this overarching failure.
What is ignoring scientific advice?