Wake up（29）

 

Chapter 5 Anti-Rightist

 

29

 

This summer, the weather is very hot, and the ground is like a furnace. The sun is like a big fireball, so hot that people have nowhere to hide. When time settles down, there are only memories. The memory is so heavy, how can it make people move.

Chai Jianhua was so hot that he couldn't sleep all night, especially the nightmares woke him up from time to time. He couldn't sleep anymore. Memory is like a trapped beast, it is really not a good thing. In the memories are all my own bitterness and the ridicule of others.

Chai Jianhua imprisoned himself in his own memory. Memories are a very tiring thing, just like how to lie down when insomnia is not right.

Before dawn, he walked out of the house and stood in the yard. Only the bright dewdrops in the morning and the numerous stars at night could give him a sense of shade. No matter how good the past is, the more memories are made, the taste will fade. A person thinks that the painful memories are unforgettable, but those who create the pain may have already forgotten them. They will cover up these pains and create great and glorious memories, thinking that this is the correct memory.

The night went away with the rising sun at dawn, and the rose flowers covered with green leaves wafted into this small courtyard with a faint fragrance. The morning light shone through the branches and leaves, and the ground was covered with light spots the size of copper coins.

Memories are like trapped animals, lonely for too long and gradually gentle, letting go of the fist, but more free. Chai Jianhua, an old Chinese doctor, started to play aerobics created by himself in the yard, and then dragged a bamboo couch. He lay on the bamboo couch, turned on his mobile phone, and began to browse news from the Internet.

Human beings have entered 2020, but the world is full of disasters. Extreme weather has fueled wildfires in forests around the world, torrential rains have hit East Asia, and locust plagues in Africa have spread to India and China. Due to abnormally high temperatures in the North Pole, serious oil spills occurred. Massive coral bleaching has also occurred off the coast of Taiwan. The causes behind these environmental disasters cannot be separated from global warming and climate change.

Global fires continue, sounding the alarm bells of the climate crisis.

The Australian bushfires that began to burn in September 2019 have ravaged forests across the country for more than seven months. According to statistics from the Australian Federal Department of Home Affairs, as of March this year, the area burned by the fires reached 17.1 million hectares, equivalent to 4.7 areas of Taiwan. The Australian Academy of Science also called this "unprecedented in the world" fire. It is estimated that more than 1 billion animals were killed in the fire pit, severely damaging Australia's unique ecosystem.

In 2020, a fire broke out in California, USA, and the orange sky seemed to be doomsday. California wildfires appear every year, and the fires in 2020 broke the historical record of the country. According to statistics, more than 3.15 million acres of land were burned, which is equivalent to the area of 5 greater Taipei areas. The fire burned for 75 days, and the smoke and smog made the sky in the area orange, like a doomsday scene, and the smoke drifted to the East Coast and Canada. It is estimated that at least 20 people were killed, nearly 5,000 buildings were damaged, more than 100,000 people were forced to evacuate, and several cities declared a state of emergency. On August 20, 2020, the jungle and forest near Lake Hughes in California, USA, were engulfed by fire. At least 10,000 acres of land were burned within a few hours, and several buildings were destroyed.

In June, a small town in Siberia located in the Arctic Circle recorded a record high temperature of 38 degrees Celsius. The heat wave immediately triggered the worst fire disaster in Siberia. The total area burned by wildfires reached 20 million hectares, which is equivalent to 5.5 Taiwan. forest. The fires could cause more Arctic permafrost to thaw, hitting fragile Arctic ecosystems hard and releasing more greenhouse gases that could exacerbate global climate change. In the summer of 2020, the natural environment of Siberia was confronted with the severe consequences of climate change: heat waves, oil spills caused by melting permafrost, and severe forest fires.

The Amazon rainforest recorded a 9.5% increase in detected fires between August 2019 and July 2020, the highest in 12 years. According to statistics, burning hotspots are not only in the rainforest, but also in the Cerrado savannah with the richest biodiversity in the world, and the Pantanal wetland, which is the largest in the world. The fires killed thousands of species and devastated the Amazon biome.

Some time ago, a national fire broke out in Australia, and a large number of animals were burned homeless. Although the rainy weather extinguished most of the fire, due to the destruction of a large number of vegetation by the fire, the surviving wild animals had to face food after the fire risk of shortages.

When looking back on the global forest fire disaster in 2020, people also realize that extreme climate has spread all over the world, and environmental disasters are intensifying everywhere.

The small town of Verkhoyansk, which is located in the Arctic Circle and once set a record for the lowest temperature of -68 degrees Celsius, was hit by a heat wave this summer and measured a record-breaking high temperature of 38 degrees Celsius, breaking the town's previous average temperature of about 13 degrees Celsius in June. record. Abnormally high temperatures have brought about a series of interlocking environmental disasters such as drought in Siberia, forest fires, melting permafrost, and oil spills, seriously threatening the Arctic ecology.

The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center measured the second-lowest extent of Arctic sea ice cover in 40 years in September. Arctic sea ice has lost two-thirds of its volume, underscoring the seriousness of global warming. The team of the Biodiversity Center of the Taiwan Academia Sinica observed the most serious large-scale coral bleaching along the coast of Taiwan, including the northeast corner, Penghu, Kenting, Green Island and Lanyu, and more than 50% of the corals in the southern part of Lanyu showed signs of bleaching. Coral bleaching shows the seriousness of ocean warming.

Under the severe impact of extreme weather, torrential rains in many Asian countries this year have caused rivers to swell, causing severe flooding, and millions of people have been displaced. One-third of Bangladesh’s land was soaked in water, affecting the lives of 2.8 million residents; Japan’s Kyushu Island suffered extensive and catastrophic heavy rainfall, and more than 1 million people were forced to relocate from their homes; about 6.8 million people were affected by floods in northeastern India; Nepal and Indonesia also caused floods and landslides due to heavy rains, causing many casualties and major economic losses. Mainland China also saw the heaviest torrential rain in 50 years, affecting some 37.89 million people. Torrential rain in central China's Jiangxi province caused severe flooding, with residents fleeing in small boats past damaged homes near Poyang Lake.

It is worth noting that major environmental pollution also causes energy disasters.

In May 2020, one of the worst oil spills in the history of the Arctic occurred on the Tamil Peninsula located in the Russian Arctic Circle. Up to 20,000 metric tons of diesel oil leaked, polluting 20 kilometers of rivers and surrounding land.

In July, the Japanese cargo ship "Wakashio" carrying 4,000 tons of fuel oil ran aground on the southeast coast of Mauritius, one of the three pearls of the Indian Ocean. Coral reefs and mangroves in this sea area are not spared, causing an ecological crisis and even jeopardizing the tourism livelihood that local residents rely on.

The energy disaster in 2020, in addition to the above-mentioned major oil spill, the North Sea of the Atlantic Ocean has continuously leaked a large amount of methane for 30 years, which is 28 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide. According to a recent independent study, an estimated 8,000 to 30,000 tons of methane are spilled from more than 15,000 natural gas wellbores in the North Sea each year. Oil and gas companies continue to drill holes in the seabed, seriously affecting the global climate and the ecology of the North Sea. Many destructive energy pollutions are caused by human beings.

Maintaining biodiversity is as urgent as mitigating climate change. About 1 million species in the world are currently threatened with extinction, many of which will disappear within a few decades. This is a crisis for nature and a crisis for human beings. Because food, medicine, building materials, clothing, chemical raw materials and all kinds of daily necessities are provided by all kinds of creatures in nature, and human beings are also part of the earth's ecosystem. However, such an ecological network system is gradually disappearing due to excessive human intrusion and destruction, as well as the impact of global climate change.

Chai Jianhua was lying on the bamboo couch, and saw the news of the virus targeting animals and humans on his mobile phone.

The global pandemic of the new crown epidemic in 2020 has caused turmoil around the world, and the natural world is also not peaceful.

Due to climate change and rising sea temperature, locusts have created extremely favorable breeding conditions. In February this year, a large number of desert locusts appeared in East Africa. Wherever the locust army passed, there was no grass left and food resources were looted. The locusts that started in East Africa have now crossed the Red Sea, entered Asia and Eastern Europe, and have now spread eastward to China, India and Pakistan. Due to the spread of locusts, it is not yet possible to calculate the losses and possible impacts. If the locusts cannot be controlled, it will inevitably affect the food production in Asia, and may complete a certain food crisis in Asia.

African swine fever is actually no stranger, because pork has become a luxury item under the attack of African swine fever. Due to the rise in the price of pork, it has led to the rise of other meats, which has a certain impact on everyone's life.

But this year's bird flu has broken out all over the world. At present, the Middle East is a serious area for bird flu virus outbreaks, and a large number of poultry there have been culled.

Chai Jianhua, as an old Chinese medicine doctor over ninety years old, is most concerned about viruses targeting humans.

Since October last year, the new flu virus has been spreading in the United States. So far, 22 million Americans have been infected and at least 12,000 people have died. The mysterious virus outbreak in Nigeria has infected 104 people and killed 15. The novel coronavirus broke out in China at the end of last year. According to official data on the morning of February 15, 66,577 people were diagnosed and 1,524 died. Now there are many countries around the world with new coronavirus infections.

2020 can be said to be a year that caught everyone off guard. Although many people had made bad predictions for 2020 in 2019, 2020 was far worse than everyone's predictions.

Chai Jianhua was both surprised and not surprised by the various disasters after the arrival of 2020. What surprised Chai Jianhua was that these disasters broke out too concentratedly. If he was not surprised, he had anticipated the impact of the virus on human beings and had worried a long time ago.

Chai Jianhua is worried that with global warming, the release of many ancient viruses in permafrost will inevitably have an impact on humans. Economic globalization will inevitably lead to the globalization of viruses. With the close exchanges between countries around the world, many viruses that originally belonged to regions will spread to the world with the flow of people, which will cause the death of many people without antibodies. The continuous development of human beings will inevitably break the balance of various natural circles. Once the balance of the natural circle is broken, some viruses will take the opportunity to leave the natural circle and infect humans.

The unpredictable nature of the summer sky, with low clouds and direct sunlight, seems like a call to action. The blue sky gradually lost a trace of cloud, the fiery sun began to scorch the earth, the soil in the ground began to smoke, even the air was hot, and people sweated all over when they moved.

Chai Jianhua put away his mobile phone, got up from the bamboo couch, and returned to the house. He was thinking that humans should now focus on how to deal with possible future food crises and threats to life from various new viruses.

As a senior doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, he began to think: he should increase research on respiratory infections and Chinese medicine treatment methods in the future, because any virus that can be infected through the respiratory tract is fatal to the entire human being, and it is hard to guard against.