Wake up（50）

 

50

 

Nan Yunshan slowly helped his grandfather He Jiafu who was lying on the sickbed up, let him lean on the back of the bed, and made him another cup of tea.

Nan Yunshan showed He Jiafu some pictures on the phone. He said to He Jiafu: "Grandpa, these are some news pictures about natural disasters in the world. The Year of the Pig and Rat is indeed full of disasters. Looking around the world, not only the pandemic of influenza, new crown pneumonia, and bird flu, but also many natural disasters in various countries. Fires, locust plagues, droughts, earthquakes, blizzards... tens of thousands of people died."

Nan Yunshan began to read related natural disaster news reports:

On January 18, 2020, Canada suffered the largest snowstorm in more than 30 years. Snow conditions were particularly severe in and around St. John's. According to reports, the thickness of the snow cover is more than 40 centimeters in the thinnest place, and 178 centimeters in the thickest place. Snow brings a lot of inconvenience to people. Affected by the bad weather, many local schools were forced to close and hundreds of flights were cancelled. Due to the heavy snow on the roads, a large number of snow plows were dispatched to clear the roads in the area. In many places, there were scenes of doors being blocked by heavy snow, cars buried in snow, and people digging trenches in the snow.

On January 29, 2020, another magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the Caribbean Sea, a tourist resort in North America, triggering a local tsunami warning. The building shook, and there were big pits everywhere on the ground. Strong tremors were felt in Mexico, Florida and other places.

On February 12, a fire in Australia that began on July 18, 2019 and burned 400 hectares for 210 days was completely extinguished. Over the past few months, wildfires have ravaged many parts of Australia, killing at least 33 people, killing more than 1 billion animals, and burning more than 2,500 houses and 11.7 million hectares of land. In the past six months from September 2019 to the present, misfortunes never come singly in Australia, with fires, sandstorms, floods, and hail taking turns.

The forest fire occurred in Australia's most populous southern continent. The fire intensified and gradually got out of control. According to relevant reports, the wildfires in Australia were not all natural disasters, but also man-made disasters: a total of 180 people were suspected of arson. There are both adults and minors, 24 of whom are suspected of deliberately arson and starting the bushfire, 53 of them are suspected of failing to comply with the fire ban, and 47 of them are suspected of throwing lighted cigarettes or matches on the ground. 87% of the fires in Australia are caused by humans. The Australian government failed to handle the fires well, and the people wailed. The Australian fires killed billions of animals and released 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is roughly the annual emissions of the 116 countries with the lowest carbon dioxide emissions in the world combined. . Australia's fire has made all the efforts of countries around the world to reduce emissions for several years in vain.

The west coast of the United States has continued to suffer from wildfires this year, covering California, Oregon and Washington states.

2020 has been a record year for wildfires in California. Since the beginning of this year, more than 8,800 wildfires have occurred in California, and more than 7,000 buildings have been destroyed. The cumulative fire area has exceeded 16,000 square kilometers, killing 31 people. Among them, the August Complex Fire, which broke out, burned an area of 870,000 acres, equivalent to half of Shanghai, and became the largest wildfire in California history. The San Francisco Bay Area was shrouded in smog, and the "Bobcat" wildfire broke out, approaching the Chinese district of Los Angeles. It is considered to be one of the largest fires in the history of Los Angeles County. Doomsday" scenario.

On January 12, 2020, the Taal Volcano in the Philippines erupted on a large scale. The erupted volcanic ash rose to a height of 14,000 meters, and the dust cloud covering the sky was accompanied by lightning and thunder. Thousands of people have been evacuated from the area as authorities warned of a possible "explosive eruption" after a volcano near the Philippine capital Manila spewed plumes of ash that drifted across the capital, forcing the cancellation of flights and the closure of schools and government offices. The eruption also triggered 75 earthquakes. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recorded a total of 423 volcanic earthquakes. Affected by the eruption of the Taal volcano, 40,126 people were evacuated to 189 evacuation centers. The authorities said that 450,000 people may be evacuated within a radius of 14 kilometers from the volcano in the future. The eruption of a volcano in the Philippines has made experts warn that many volcanoes around the world are about to move.

Nan Yunshan continues to read related natural disaster news reports:

In mid-January, Canada encountered a rare snowstorm. The eastern provinces experienced continuous snowfall for 36 hours and encountered the largest snowstorm in more than 30 years. Newfoundland and Labrador became a world of ice and snow overnight; St. John's and surrounding areas were heavily snowed. The thinnest part of the snow was more than 40 centimeters thick, while the thickest part reached 178 centimeters.

Since April 12, local time, nearly 60 tornadoes have swept across many parts of the southern United States, killing at least 33 people and leaving nearly a million households without power.

On the evening of January 17, 2020, heavy rain hit southeastern Queensland, Australia. The "once in a century" torrential rain caused floods, causing severe flooding in the local area. Streets in some areas were flooded, and a large number of shops were forced to close. Parts of Lisbane and the famous tourist city of Gold Coast were flooded, and some roads were closed; a huge sandstorm also hit Dubbo, a city in the central and western part of the country, on the evening of January 19, making many residents of several nearby cities completely in the dark.

On January 21, 2020, the northeastern part of Spain was hit by strong winds and heavy snow, and the power supply was cut off. Visibility was poor due to the storm and heavy snowfall, the temperature dropped rapidly to the point of freezing, and the waves rose sharply along the Mediterranean coast. 233 roads in Spain were closed due to heavy snow and heavy rain, including 10 main road arteries with a total length of more than 2,400 kilometers. The storm is raging, because the fresh water in the river enters the ocean, mixed with some substances, such as dead and withered plants, fish carcasses, some excrement, or chemical substances, etc., and then after the huge waves raised by the storm, it will be mixed with rain, snow and Waves of other matter poured back into the city.

On June 27, a huge dust storm from the Sahara Desert in Africa crossed the Atlantic Ocean, entered the Caribbean Sea, and approached the United States. Many countries it passed were shrouded in severe dust, the sky darkened, the rain was polluted, and visibility was greatly reduced. It is harmful to human health. cause serious harm. Although African dust blows across the Atlantic Ocean every year, this time it is unusually large and dense, and is considered to be the most violent in 50 years.

On October 30, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake hit the Aegean Sea in western Turkey, killing at least 115 people in the country. Turkey's disaster and emergency management agency said there have been 1,621 aftershocks in the country's Izmir province since the quake struck.

Heavy rains and floods ravage Asia. From India, Bangladesh and Myanmar along the Indian Ocean, to Bhutan and Nepal under the Himalayas, to Japan in the Western Pacific, many Asian countries have suffered severe torrential rains and floods this summer.

Disasters hit at least nine states in India and millions of people were affected; Bangladeshi officials bluntly said that one-third of the country's land was submerged under water. On June 25, thunderstorms hit Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India, killing at least 107 people. According to the Hindustan Times, 315 people have been killed by lightning in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh since May 15. On June 25 and July 2, 92 and 26 people were killed by lightning in Bihar alone. Most of the victims were people working outdoors in the fields. Although the annual monsoon season from June to September is a time when lightning accidents occur frequently in India, the number of deaths due to lightning strikes in Bihar this year has far exceeded the total number of deaths in recent years. It is understood that the rise in temperature is the main reason for the continuous increase in lightning accidents.

On July 19, in Faridpur, more than 100 kilometers away from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, the houses of local residents were submerged in the flood. On July 4, parts of the mudslide disaster occurred in Ashihoku Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Roads were washed out and houses were washed up over railings. Japan's "Reiwa 2 July torrential rain" caused floods and landslides in the Kyushu Island area, killing at least 70 people.

From mid-September to mid-November, Vietnam experienced 9 typhoons and 2 tropical depressions in succession, causing economic losses of 30 trillion VND (approximately RMB 8.5 billion), exceeding the entire year of 2019. 192 people were killed and 57 people were missing. The continuous heavy rainfall in central Vietnam has caused many natural disasters such as mudslides and mountain torrents, and there has been a flood level that has never been seen in a century. Typhoon Huan Gao has injured at least 18 people and damaged more than 1,500 houses in Vietnam. Typhoon Molave made landfall in central Vietnam, the strongest storm to hit Vietnam in the past 20 years. The floods and mudslides caused by the typhoon caused more than 56,000 buildings to be damaged or collapsed, more than 40,000 people were evacuated urgently, at least 27 people died, and 50 people were missing.

While reading news reports on natural disasters, Nan Yunshan said to his grandfather, He Jiafu:

At the beginning of this year, severe locust plagues are spreading in East Africa. The number of locusts has not been seen in decades. More than 20 countries in Africa and South Asia have been affected with a total area of more than 16 million square kilometers. At least 25 million people are facing severe food shortages. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a desert locust swarm has about 40 million locusts per square kilometer, and such a locust swarm can eat the rations of 35,000 people in a day.

The worst locust plague in 25 years is spreading across East Africa, infesting an estimated 360 billion locusts, posing an unprecedented threat to food security in some of the world's most vulnerable countries. In Kenya, which is currently the hardest hit, the food of thousands of people can be eaten every day, and the plague in some parts of Kenya is also very serious, which is undoubtedly worse. While the creatures are harmless to the touch, the situation is "extremely serious" and poses an "unprecedented threat" to the food security and livelihoods of people in the Horn of Africa.

Due to the intensification of global warming in recent years, the drought in southern Africa has continued since 2019, which has reduced the Victoria Falls, which supplies food and water to Africa, into a few trickles. Recently, the terrible locust plague that broke out in eastern Africa is undoubtedly a greater blow to Africa. The locust plague has dramatically worsened the already poor food security situation in Africa. If it is not handled properly in time, the consequences of the locust outbreak will not only be devastating for Africa Yes, it may also push more people in Africa into extreme poverty and hunger.

Nan Yunshan’s grandfather, He Jiafu, said: Many people think that protecting the environment is not their own responsibility, and that disasters will not happen to them, so they don’t take it seriously. Faced with so many natural and man-made disasters in the world, people began to realize,

We deserve a chance to save ourselves. In fact, every disaster is closely related to everyone.

He Jiafu finally spoke: "Yunshan, is the old fairy still chatting in the yard? You go and have a look. If he is still there, please invite him to sit with me for a while."