Chapter 350 Climate Change

Chapter 350 Climate Change

Chapter 350 Climate Change

The North China Plain in January is covered in a pale white snow.

The city of springs in Qilu Province.

After more than a year of overtime work, the Yellow River Quancheng Dam was finally officially completed on the 28th of this month.

A 50-meter-high large gravity dam and two large three-level ship locks stand in the middle of the surging Yellow River.

At the same time, silt from the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River is continuously transported to low-lying coastal areas through dredgers and transport airships, and is used to raise the level of coastal areas at high risk of being flooded by sea water.

Standing on the observation deck of Quancheng Dam which has just been opened to the public, you can see that the Yellow River channel below the Quancheng Dam has expanded in width by no less than three times compared with before, and the width of the river in some sections has even expanded by nearly five or six times compared with before.

A large number of low-lying plains along the coast were flooded by the Yellow River, forming large shoals.

However, these flooded shoals were not left unattended. Instead, sand was pumped to both sides of the river through sand pumping equipment to increase the altitude of both sides.

From the observation deck, you can see a large number of sand dredging ships operating in the shallow area.

Even though part of the river was covered with floating ice at this time, it did not block the construction of the contracting company.

Of course, this is also related to the continuous implementation of various new technologies.

Nowadays, many engineering equipment are actually highly automated and intelligent. Workers do not need to go on board to operate them in person. Instead, they can set up a temporary control center on the shore to realize remote work.

Bai Shengyuan, a climate researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was standing on the observation deck with two doctoral students, observing the "new Yellow River" in front of them through telescopes.

In fact, the area of ​​the Yellow River near Quancheng has only expanded about five times. The section of the river that has changed the most is near the mouth of the Yellow River.

Now the Yellow River flows upstream for about 100 kilometers before it enters the sea, which has caused the surface area of ​​a section of the river to expand by almost 50 times, turning it into a "new lake."

According to the latest official map updated by Qilu Province, the area near the mouth of the Yellow River has been marked as "Dongying Lake", with a water area of ​​5741 square kilometers, which is larger than Qinghai Lake.

Looking at the river in front of him that was covered with floating ice and flowing slowly, Bai Shengyuan shook his head: "It seems that we need to activate several backup river channels as soon as possible, otherwise the area of ​​Dongying Lake will continue to expand."

"Teacher, the Yellow River Conservancy Commission should have a plan, right?" Doctoral student Li Xiaofeng raised his glasses.

Another doctoral student, Hou Kang, didn't care much about this. He said calmly, "Xiaofeng, don't worry about this. In fact, part of the North China Plain is buried now, which has little impact on our country."

Li Xiaofeng immediately refuted: "How can it not be related? The North China Plain is the core grain production area in China. If the area continues to decrease, how can we ensure the food security of China and the Asian Union in the future?"

"You haven't read the news online recently, have you?"

"What? Is there some new technology?" Li Xiaofeng asked back uncertainly.

Hou Kang pointed to the Quancheng New District not far from the dam and said, "Those twenty-story buildings are agricultural buildings built by China Railway Group. Farmers in low-lying areas that have been flooded recently can choose to go to the northwest and south of the desert, or they can choose to rent indoor farms in these agricultural buildings."

"Indoor farm? Isn't the cost too high? Even if the water and electricity bills in China are cheap, you can't afford to do this, right?"

Bai Shengyuan did not interrupt the two students' discussion, but silently observed the surface of the Yellow River.

Hou Kang mentioned: "Academician Jiang released a new technology some time ago."

"Academician Jiang? Academician Jiang Miao? What has he developed?" Li Xiaofeng immediately became interested. After all, Jiang Miao was very famous in the domestic biological and agricultural circles.

"Why don't you just check it on your phone? I can't explain it clearly, but you've been really hardworking. You really haven't asked about what's going on outside these past few months!"

Li Xiaofeng smiled bitterly: "Brother Hou, I am not as smart as you. If I don't concentrate, the project may not be completed on time."

He then took out his mobile phone and quickly searched for various information about Jiang Miao in the past few months, and soon found out what the technology Hou Kang was talking about.

"…Breakthrough in the energy utilization rate of natural photosynthesis, really worthy of being called Academician Jiang, biotechnology is really amazing, this can almost subvert the traditional agricultural production model."

"Do you still think there is no way to ensure food security in China?" Hou Kang opened the thermos cup and took a sip of hot milk tea.
"I believe it. After all, this is the achievement of Academician Jiang."

Bai Shengyuan put down the telescope and reminded calmly: "The climate of the North China Plain may undergo semi-permanent changes in the future. Your project can start from this point and use supercomputers to conduct simulation analysis. If you work harder, you may be able to produce some high-quality papers."

"Studying climate change in the North China Plain? This is indeed a good direction." Li Xiaofeng nodded slightly.

"Then Xiaofeng, you should study this direction! Houzi, what about you? What are your plans?" Bai Shengyuan looked at another student.

Hou Kang smiled and twisted the thermos bottle, then said confidently: "I plan to study the ecological transformation of the North China Plain. As the freshwater area of ​​the North China Plain continues to expand, the ecology of the North China Plain will inevitably change in the future. And with various engineering transformations, we may see a brand new ecological system."

Bai Shengyuan first affirmed this direction, and then asked Hou Kang about his career plan: "Not bad, but Houzi, your project will require at least five or six years of dedicated research. Do you have the patience?"

"Teacher, you are aware of my family situation. Anyway, I will definitely not be the heir to my company, so I might as well devote my energy to academic research." Hou Kang said helplessly.

Bai Shengyuan and Li Xiaofeng immediately understood each other's thoughts. They had heard Hou Kang talk about the situation at home.

His family runs a chain of supermarkets, but Hou Kang has three older brothers and one older sister. None of these brothers and sisters are humble, and each of them is keeping their eyes on the family assets from the dozen or so supermarkets.

Hou Kang did not want to fight with his brothers and sisters. In fact, his father also saw his character, so after buying him a house, he gave him some money and let him do what he wanted.

This is also the reason why Hou Kang became a Buddhist.

"Old White, when are you going to go back to the hotel?"

Deng Wenkui, a water conservancy researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, walked over not far away.

Bai Shengyuan brushed off some snowflakes on his body, then looked at his watch: "It's still early, not even four o'clock yet, and it's too early to have dinner. Can we inspect for another hour?"

Deng Wenkui looked at the time and felt that it was too early, so he nodded and agreed: "Okay, let's meet at the parking lot of the dam management building around five o'clock."

"no problem."

Just as Deng Wenkui was about to say something, a long whistle sounded and echoed on the nearby river.

Bu bu bu…

I saw a 10,000-ton electric container ship slowly sailing from the downstream river, and then under the command of the pilot, the container ship entered one of the large locks.

From the observation deck, one has an unobstructed view of the container ship.

Deng Wenkui smiled and said, "This is the first 10,000-ton ship to enter the Yellow River in history." Bai Shengyuan took off his sunglasses to prevent snow blindness and wiped them, "There will definitely be more and more in the future, but Old Deng, where can a 10,000-ton ship go now?"

Deng Wenkui thought about some information in his mind: "Well... now we can go to Shangdu City Wharf in southern Henan Province. The Yellow River channel above Shangdu Wharf can only accommodate 5000-ton ships. The Yellow River channel above Hukou Waterfall can only accommodate 2000-ton ships."

"This is not bad. The Yellow River was almost impassable before, but now the navigation capacity of the middle and lower reaches is not much weaker than that of the Yangtze River."

"It can't compare to the Yangtze River." Deng Wenkui shook his head: "The Yangtze River will continue to be upgraded in the future. The river below Jiangcheng will be upgraded to accommodate 3-ton ships."

Bai Shengyuan was a little surprised: "Doesn't that mean many bridges will have to be demolished and rebuilt?"

"In fact, some of the bridges over the Yangtze River have to be rebuilt now, because the current situation was not taken into account when they were designed."

Hearing this, Bai Shengyuan smiled bitterly: "Who would have thought that in less than five or six years, the world would have undergone such huge changes? It's no wonder that the designers at the time didn't consider the current situation."

"That's nothing. If the old doesn't go, the new won't come!"

"That's true."

When several people are talking.

The 10,000-ton container ship has passed through one lock and entered the second lock.

Bai Shengyuan remembered something and asked quietly, "Old Deng, I heard that the Yellow River Conservancy Commission plans to open up more Yellow River channels?"

"Where did this gossip come from?" Deng Wenkui looked surprised.

"You forgot that I also have access to some confidential information. After all, increasing the number of river channels downstream definitely requires relevant demonstration. They gave us some of the information for demonstration. The specific content is the impact of increasing the number of river channels on the local climate."

Deng Wenkui nodded: "You guessed correctly, the Yellow River Conservancy Commission does have plans in this regard."

Bai Shengyuan sighed and said, “It seems that after the construction of the coastal dam, drainage in some river channels has started to become problematic.”

"Everything has its pros and cons. There is nothing we can do about it. If there are problems, we will solve them. When the land and ocean water systems form a dynamic balance again in the future, these problems will naturally be solved."

"Then do you know how many more rivers we need to add?"

Deng Wenkui did not hide anything, but told the other party part of what he knew: "At present, we plan to add an artificial river channel to pass through the southern part of Hebei Province, giving priority to flooding low-lying areas, and at the same time realizing the shipping value and climate regulation value of the river channel as much as possible."

"By the way, there seems to be some action on the Yangtze River side, but they seem to be planning to divert some of the Yangtze River water through the Han River and then build a new canal to connect to the Yellow River."

Deng Wenkui shook his head: "Haha, I heard about the project, but it seems to have been rejected. The main reason is that the workload is too large and the construction period is too long. There is no way to complete it within ten years."

"That's such a shame."

"What a pity! The Yellow River can't even increase its own water volume, so how can it have the confidence to take over the water from the Yangtze River?"

"Yes! I never expected that in just five or six years, the water problem in the North China Plain would be reversed."

As several people have said, the current water use problem in the North China Plain is no longer a lack of water resources, but rather a huge increase in water resources, resulting in the continuous expansion of the water area in the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

There are many reasons for the current situation.

On the one hand, global climate change has caused the overall precipitation in the North China Plain to increase year by year.

For example, the famous 400 mm precipitation line is now different from what was marked on the old version of the map. Its line has moved nearly 100 kilometers to 300 kilometers to the west and north.

On the other hand, the global sea level is rising, and Serbia is constantly building sea-control dams, which has resulted in the estuaries of the Yellow River and other rivers being blocked. A large amount of river water coming down from upstream is constantly accumulating near the downstream estuary delta, and expanding the water area upward.

In addition, in order to alleviate the ever-expanding water areas in the downstream river channel, large artificial lakes were built in low-lying areas along the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

The ever-expanding water area in the North China Plain has caused a surge in local water evaporation. Now the North China Plain is not dry at all, but has become as humid as the Huaihe River Basin.

If we describe it in terms of climate change, the original temperate monsoon climate of the North China Plain has changed from a temperate oceanic climate in the north to a subtropical monsoon climate in the south.

That is, Hebei Province changes into a temperate maritime climate.

The southern Henan Province and the Shandong Province have developed a subtropical monsoon climate.

This is a semi-permanent climate change.

There are factors such as global temperature rise and the impact of global sea level rise, as well as the engineering transformation of Seres. These factors have jointly caused the climate change in the North China Plain.

The original temperate continental climate in the northwest region has also undergone varying degrees of humidification.

One of the more obvious areas is the Tengger Desert.

Although a large number of Soybeans were planted here before, which reduced the area of ​​desert, with the arrival of 2030, the local annual precipitation has become almost the same as that of the Guanzhong Plain.

Therefore, the problem that Li Xiaofeng was worried about before, such as rising sea levels leading to a reduction in domestic arable land, is not a big problem at all.

Mainly in the northwest, south of the desert and north of the desert, the increase in cultivated land caused by climate change is greater than the decrease caused by sea level rise.

Combined with the new crops developed by Jiang Miao, the agricultural product production capacity of indoor farms can be increased by at least four times.

Therefore, the production capacity of grain and other agricultural products within the Asian Community will not only not decrease, but will continue to soar.

The country is now increasing its efforts to promote new indoor farms, on the one hand to improve the level of urbanization and reduce the resource gap between urban and rural areas.

On the other hand, it is also to respond to the potential risks brought about by the climate crisis.

Although the country has sufficient food reserves, this is not a reason to be careless.

After all, no one knows how the earth's climate will change in the future. Especially as the construction progress of photovoltaic systems in Antarctica continues to increase, the Institute of Climate Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered many problems.

At least at this stage, humans still have no way to control the global climate 100%. Unless they use airships and set up a structure similar to a monkey version of the Dyson sphere, it will be possible to achieve comprehensive regulation of the global climate.

Obviously, it is not that the Asian Union is technically unable to build this monkey version of the Dyson sphere, but the current global division makes this project difficult to achieve.

(End of this chapter)