Complex truths are often expressed in the simplest language, like "everyone is responsible for protecting the environment." This phrase has been lingering in the ears since countless people remember.
So, what is behind this sentence? Nature is a myriad of destroyed nature. For example, the Mu Usu Desert, which was once barren and barren for hundreds of years, has rapidly disappeared in modern times.
Is this good or bad? What's going on behind it? Has there been a way to bring it back to life now?
Contrast before and after the Mu Usu Desert
Gradually prospered under the construction of rulers
The Maowusu Desert, as anyone has heard of, is one of the four famous sandy areas on the mainland, located in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province. Translated in Mongolian, it can be understood as "bad water".
As the name suggests, the wind evaluation of the Maowusu Desert is not good, because for a long time in the past, this sandy land was plagued by disasters, the wind and sand were extremely large, the drought was frequent, the climate was extremely harsh, and it was a barbaric land with no grass.
Fortunately, these are all descriptions of the past, and now the Maowusu Desert has been renewed under the call of the party government and the efforts and persistence of the people.
According to official data, the desertification land governance rate in Yulin City has reached 93.24%. The Forestry Service said that its desertified land area has been reduced by 4.72 million mu compared with 1999, and this achievement is indeed encouraging.
Mausu Desert
At the same time, all 8.6 million mu of shifting sand in the Muwusu Desert have been fixed and semi-fixed, achieving a regional desertification reversal.
This means that the world's first desert to be completely conquered by humans is about to appear. However, since it was once extremely vicious, why would it be reversed, and what is going on?
The Mu Usu Desert was not a barren place from the start. Once it was also a place of abundant water and grass. Mao Wusu was taken from the Hands of the Hu people when Meng Tianbei chased the Xiongnu. Subsequently, Qin Shi Huang established Jiuyuan, Shangjun and other counties around it on the basis of Mao Wusu.
Originally, Mao Wusu's appearance was impeccable, so Qin Shi Huang mobilized a large number of people and moved his family here.
desert
The newly settled people began to spare no effort in agricultural development, achieved countless impressive agricultural achievements, and the harvest was once high.
In this case, Mao Wusu transformed himself into a "new Qinzhong" comparable to Guanzhong. Later, after the fall of the Qin Dynasty, the Xiongnu made a comeback and once again took Mao Wusu for themselves.
However, during the period of Emperor Wu of Han, under the leadership of Wei Qing, the Han people reoccupied Mao Wusu, so Emperor Wu of Han moved more than 700,000 civilians into the Mao Wusu area and set up military tuns according to local conditions.
Under the hard work of the people of the Han Dynasty, Mao Wusu revived his mighty style and made him gain the reputation of "fertile wilderness and thousands of miles of crops". The region has created unprecedented prosperity and prosperity, and can even effectively solve the country's famine problem.
Mausu Desert
"Disfigured" under the destruction of the climate and inhabitants
However, the sun, moon, stars, and the stars seem to be going through a process of prosperity and decline, and the Mu Usu Desert is no exception. Especially from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, its "appearance" ushered in a cliff-like decline, according to the research of meteorologist Zhu Kezhen, at that time, China entered the dry and cold climate.
At this stage, the precipitation in the Maowusu Desert decreased sharply, and at the same time, the Hu people had occupied this fertile land, and after the change of dynasties, it became the heart of the xiongnu Helian Bobo regime.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, China's climate began to become humid, and by the time Tang Taizong defeated the Eastern Turks, the Maowusu Desert returned to the Central Plains, and under the regulation of the Tang Dynasty, the area became a Turkic tuntian and nomadic land.
Unfortunately, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the wind and sand weather rose and fell in Maowusu, and its severity can be described as the wind and sand being higher than the city wall.
desert
The so-called aeolian sand is fundamentally different from the sand in the wind, and there was no advanced governance method at that time, people's homes could only let this kind of catastrophic weather wreak havoc, and before long, flying sand piles were the norm.
Beginning in 822 AD, the area of the Mu Usu Desert continued to expand, and the Ordos region began to desertify gradually, unable to support important agriculture. If you want to talk about the cause of desertification, it has a lot to do with the dry and cold climate, on the other hand, it is also closely related to the indiscriminate reclamation and random grazing of herders in Liuhu Prefecture.
Thus, the formation of the Mu Usu Desert was formed under the dual pressure of climate change and the uncontrolled use of the Hu people of The Six States.
During the Song Dynasty, Mao Wusu became the treasure of Western Xia, and by the time the Song and Xia were at war, it was already the forefront of the country's short-term military connection. As a result, the extent of the destruction in the Mausu area has been further exacerbated.
desert
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Maowusu Desert was formally formed, and on the basis of its original, it gradually advanced to the southeast and reached the line of the Yansui Great Wall.
The Yansui Great Wall was rebuilt in the early years of the Wanli Calendar, and due to the strong wind and sand along the Great Wall, the sand carried by the strong wind was already as high as the city wall, and the Mongols could easily climb over the city wall and enter the interior.
The Mongols who entered the interior raped and plundered the local people and did no evil. To this end, the government of the Ming Dynasty had to spend a lot of manpower, material and financial resources every year to carry out sand extraction work, but with little success.
Because the effect of sand extraction is not obvious, the flying sand and quicksand cross the city wall and continue to spread to the southeast, so that the rivers in the interior are rapidly desertified, and the people of Yulin City have to migrate south.
During the Qing Dynasty, the area of the Maowusu Desert was still expanding, and the homes that the people of Yulin City relied on for survival were disappearing step by step, and they had no way to stop the invasion of the desert, so they could only choose to move south again.
Yulin City
Returning to green with the efforts of the people
The expansion of the Mu Usu Desert was continuous, and the longer it went on, the larger its area became, and by the 1970s it had reached its maximum.
Scholars at the time generally believed that climate change was the dominant factor in the formation of the Mu Usu Desert, and in their view, changes in the desert were positively correlated with natural changes. For example, when the climate is warm and wet, the Mu Usu Desert seems to have been magically transformed into a feng shui treasure suitable for farming and grazing.
However, when the climate is dry and cold, the Mausu region will face the test of reduced water sources, vegetation degradation, and then the desert area will further expand. In addition to climatic reasons, many scholars believe that the biggest reason for the formation of the Mu Wusu Desert is that human beings only take and do not restrain their behavior.
Because as early as the Ming and Qing dynasties, some grain crops were introduced from abroad for planting and production, which greatly increased the grain output in the Maowusu area, which caused a surge in the population.
Mausu Desert
After the population explosion, more and more land needed to be reclaimed, and in the face of the surge in demand, land in the Mausu region became the first choice for residents.
Over time, it seems to be more and more unable to bear the ruthless cruelty from human beings, because the people living in this land only care about how to pioneer, do not know how to maintain, how to let the land rest and recuperate.
As a result, the activities carried out by people in the Maowusu region, under the influence of the years, have caused irreversible damage, and the longer the damage, the wider the area of desertification, and later, even to the point of being impossible to contain.
In 1949, the desertification of Mao Wusu was already unstoppable, and the flowing sand dunes along the Jingbian and other areas of the Great Wall were as many as the ocean, and Yulin City, under the influence of quicksand, helplessly placed its body in the desert.
Yulin City
It is no exaggeration to say that people can step on the sand pile on this side of the city wall and walk to the side of the city wall, and what makes people sigh is that the former "famous city plugged in" has become a "famous city under the sand".
According to public data, by the early days of liberation, only 600,000 mu of natural forest remained in Yulin, and 0.9% was the remaining forest coverage.
Large tracts of farmland and pastures have been lost under the influence of shifting sand, and the remaining farmland and pastures are in a worrying situation, surrounded by a large number of sand dunes, further exacerbating desertification, salinization and widespread degradation of the land.
When the rainy weather comes, a large amount of sediment is washed away, and along with the river, it flows into the Yellow River, and hundreds of millions of tons of sediment enter the Yellow River every year due to soil erosion.
Yellow River
In short, in order to prevent and control sand, the people's government began to exert great efforts and efforts, and they exerted great efforts to control the sand and carried out arduous and extremely arduous sand control activities.
In 1959, in order to mobilize the people of the city to join the sand control team, the Yulin government encouraged everyone to treat the sand control activities as their own family affairs to do and fight, and issued relevant subsidy policies.
Under the strong call of the government, all the citizens carried pickaxes and saplings on their backs, and marched majestically towards the Muwusu Desert. With subsidies, everyone is full of energy.
While contributing, while taking money, thousands of households built forests, vigorously expanded the windproof forest belt, at the same time, did not forget to divert floods and silt the land, soon, everyone's efforts have borne fruit, and the situation in the Maowusu area has slowly improved.
Sand control
In the process of all the members working together, Chinese used their wisdom to create one practical and effective technology after another, flying shrubs, planting trees, and introducing evergreen tree species throughout.
In addition, the wisdom of the people is infinite, according to the characteristics of the Maowusu area and long-term work experience, they invented a unique "grass square" technology, so that the water source can be further conserved, to a large extent to maintain the water and soil.
With the model, the "grass square" technology was quickly recognized by countless experts and popularized internationally. Today, the Mu usu Desert is getting smaller and smaller, and the vegetation coverage is getting higher and higher.
Mausu Desert
The desertification disaster that was once talked about has long become a thing of the past in people's mouths, and looking around, the Maowusu area has faded the yellow sand and changed into new clothes, and has the appearance that a "wonderful woman" should have had a long time ago.
It is said that history is a reincarnation, and it is true. Mao Wusu's gradual return to old age is undoubtedly a verification of the fact that in the near future, China will surely achieve great national rejuvenation and usher in another unprecedented "Han and Tang Dynasty" era.