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Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. (10th prophet):
Our attention has been called during the last few weeks to a number of conditions prevailing in our own land, and in other lands, of a very evil nature. In a far off part of the world there has been a terrible earthquake -- thousands of people have lost their lives. In our own land during the past few months, in a season when the land is usually covered with snow, in some of our middle states the people have been troubled with dust storms.
We have had a touch of it in our own land here. The whirlwinds have raised the surface of the earth in clouds of dust and carried it off to deposit it somewhere else, and in this way there has been great destruction. It has caused considerable commotion, in addition to the distress, and some alarm among those who have taken particular notice. Our scientists fear that unless something is done to protect the land, this country in many places, now fruitful, may eventually become barren and unproductive.
There are reasons for these unfavorable conditions. Now what I am about to say will not be considered scientific and perhaps will be ridiculed by those who consider themselves to be scientific, but I do not care a thing about that. I want to say to you, my brethren and sisters, that the hand of the Lord is in this. It is not all because men have left the ground in such condition that the wind can disturb its surface, but it is because men violate the commandments of God and refuse to hearken unto his word: and these things are in fulfilment of the predictions that have been made by the prophets of old and also the prophets in our own time. . . .
Source: McConkie, Bruce R., ed. Doctrines of Salvation: Sermons and Writings of Joseph Fielding Smith, Vol. 3. 27. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954-1955.