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Text: Mr. Egg Tart
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introduction
Let me ask you a question, do you know how much desertified land there is on the mainland?
It is estimated that many people will be at a loss.
In fact, the total area of desertification on the mainland has reached 1.28 million square kilometers. The so-called desertified land refers to the Gobi and sandy lands. Among them, the desert is definitely the most noticeable.
(Desert)
After all, when it comes to the desert, people will always think of the vast and dry yellow sand, where there is dry and waterless, there are no plants, and thousands of mountains and birds are extinct, which is a taboo zone engraved in people's bones.
Think about it, if these boundless deserts are managed into forests and grasslands, will the wish be completely realized?
1. The eight deserts of the mainland alone are 600,000 km², which is larger than the area of France
There are a total of eight deserts on the continent, and they are located in the northern part of the continent.
Xinjiang alone firmly occupies three major deserts: the first desert, the Taklamakan desert, the second largest desert, Bantunggut, and the sixth desert, Kumtag.
(List of the Eight Deserts of the Mainland)
In addition, the strength of Inner Mongolia's desert area should not be underestimated: the third largest desert Badain Jarin, the fourth largest desert Tengger, the seventh largest desert Kubuqi, and the eighth largest desert Ulan Buhe are all distributed in the Inner Mongolia region.
Finally, the fifth largest desert Qaidam basin is interesting, it is located on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau on the mainland, which is the highest desert on the mainland. The total area of these eight deserts has reached 580,000 square kilometers, and together with some other small deserts, the true inland desert of the mainland has reached 600,000 square kilometers, accounting for half of the total desertified land on the mainland.
(Northern Desert Distribution Map)
Don't underestimate this figure, you must know that the total area of France is only 550,000 square kilometers, and it is conceivable that the desert of the mainland is larger than that of France.
But how did so many deserts come to be?
In fact, the desert is an aeolian landform, where the weather is dry and water is scarce, and vegetation is scarce. With no water source, there are few inhabitants in the desert.
The reasons for the formation of deserts are also varied, including human and natural factors.
Human factors: In agricultural areas, people over-cultivate the land, which leads to severe wind erosion. In nomadic areas, the grazing of cattle and sheep on the grassland will also desertify the grassland, further affecting the ecology and turning it into a desert.
(Grazing map)
In addition, many forests have also become bare vegetation and desertified land under the irrational exploitation of human beings, and eventually become deserts.
Natural factors: If there is a drought and little rainfall, the river will be cut off due to water shortage. When the water supply system is interrupted, the local vegetation area is greatly reduced, and finally the land dries out and the wind and sand are severe, forming a dead cycle and turning into a desert.
2. Why are there so many deserts in the north, and how can people manage them skillfully?
The reason behind the emergence of a large area of desert in the north on the continent is very profound.
First of all, it is affected by the environment. The northwest inland part of the continent is far from the coast, and it is dry and rainless due to the monsoon. When land is not irrigated by rain, even patches of forest eventually disappear due to drought.
(Overgrazing)
Secondly, it is also related to the human historical factor. Thousands of years ago, the ancestors had a very limited understanding of environmental protection, and they over-cultivated agriculture and grazing in the north, which aggravated the desertification of the land, and finally a large area of land became a desert. In order to survive, people had to leave their homeland and move to other places.
However, if the desert is left unchecked, it will only end up with more and more desertification.
In order to solve this problem, after the liberation, the mainland adopted a number of methods to control the desert.
Truth be told, the best way to manage the desert is to plant trees, which is the most foolish and effective and direct method. For example, the state has long carried out the Three Norths desertification control project in the north, and the focus of these projects is to encourage people to plant trees wildly.
(Inner Mongolia people planting trees)
That's right, it is because everyone is planting trees day and night, and the desert on the mainland is gradually getting smaller.
Once upon a time, the famous Mu Us Sandy Land and Yellow Sand were all over the country.
In order to change the status quo, the locals began to plant trees frantically, and these small saplings that they cared for like life, under the baton of several generations, the Mu Us Desert has long been upgraded from golden to green, and 80% of the land has faded from sand.
(Status quo of Mu Us Sandy Land)
And this is only a small part of the people on the mainland, who want to make the barren desert land green again, and in recent years, there have been stories of women controlling sand and planting poplars in the north.
(Women's Ji Sha Yuan)
Their toiling figures weaved through the desert, day after day, year after year, and each of them had a flushed face.
But the end result is gratifying - the thousand-year-old desert has been remediated, and the no-man's land has gradually become lively.
In the Ningxia region, locals use unique grasses to make "grass squares" sand barriers to stop wind and sand from eroding the land. The power and wisdom of the masses are unlimited, and the common people use these local methods to gradually wipe out the sand.
3. Can human beings become forests and grasslands through governance? The answer is surprising
The initial results of afforestation have long been known to the world. In the British journal Nature in 2020, there was a high praise for afforestation in the mainland.
Of course, there is also a peculiar way to control desertification, that is, "using sand to control desertification." What is "sand control"? In fact, it is very simple, it is to turn the desert into a new energy source that can be used by people through scientific means.
Of course, it is also possible to transport this sand to the economically developed southern regions by "transporting the sand from the north to the south".
(Sand dredging airborne mining riverbed)
This is because a lot of the construction there requires the use of sand. If the sediment and mud of the riverbed are over-exploited, it will cause the riverbed to flood out of control. The best way to reduce flooding is to transport large areas of bare sand from the north directly to the south, which not only protects the ecology but also reduces the area of sandy land.
The above two methods are the methods currently used by the mainland to control desertification.
And if you want to really turn the desert into a forest and grassland, you still owe the east wind - "a rain".
(Desert under the Storm)
As long as the rain pours violently and lasts for a long time, the originally dry sandy land can be completely moistened and revitalized.
However, after all, humans can't call the wind and rain like the dragon king, so this wish is not realistic.
So what if there is no rain? In fact, it is not difficult to transfer water from other places to the desert for deep nourishment.
But here's the point!
With the mainland's current scientific and technological and economic capabilities, it is still a bit difficult to achieve this. Completely irrigating so much desert is a huge project, and it is no less difficult than excavating the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.
(Taklamakan Desert)
Therefore, on the whole, human beings can turn deserts into forests and grasslands by controlling them, but the road is long and difficult, and it is only a matter of time.
However, it is worth mentioning that even if this goal can be achieved, then those wonderful mirages, wind-blown and sandy landscapes will disappear. Like the exotic beasts in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", they can only exist in books, and will never be seen by future generations.
(Desert Mirage Wonders)
In addition, when the desert suddenly turned green, it would inevitably affect the local ecological translation, and no one knew whether this would be an opportunity or a challenge for mankind.
In the end, do you think this is a good thing?
Resources:
Overview of China's eight deserts and four major sandy areas. Open Government Affairs_Anhui Provincial Department of Natural Resources.2018-03-19