Chapter 517 Extremely Cold
Before we knew it, it was May of the second year of Xinghe.
The ice and snow in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere have finally begun to recede, but the negative effects caused by this sudden severe cold weather are very severe.
Winter wheat and spring-sown crops in the Great Plains of North America suffered losses of more than 72%, and agricultural losses were severe in other areas except Texas and Florida in the south.
The California region, which could have relied on the shielding of the Rocky Mountains to escape the disaster, was unable to resume normal agricultural production in the first quarter of this year due to the sudden major earthquake.
It is estimated that North American agricultural production will decrease by 30-40% this year.
Lucia, at a higher latitude, is not much better.
Due to the delay, the planting of spring wheat, beets and sunflowers in the Don Plain agricultural area, which was originally scheduled for April, can now only be postponed to May.
If that were all, Lucia wouldn't be seriously hurt, but the problem is that another situation has arisen, which is that the arable latitude has decreased.
For example, the northern Volga plain, the southern western Siberian plain, the southern part of the Central Siberian Mountains, and the Amur River plain have not yet completely thawed.
In this case, there is definitely no way to sow seeds.
It is estimated that Russia's arable land area will decrease by 30 to 40 million hectares, and the frost-free period of the remaining arable land will be reduced by about one month.
Also in the high-latitude Maple Leaf Country, she and Lucia share the same suffering.
A decline in agricultural production in the Northern Hemisphere is inevitable.
The situation in the Southern Hemisphere is not optimistic either.
Floods in the Pampas destroyed 27 towns, 173 farms and ranches, and caused heavy losses to cattle and sheep on local ranches.
In the Transvaal region of southern Africa, ice and snow disasters have also seriously affected local agricultural production.
The drought continues in the Kangaroo Country.
The ABCD and America corn-growing industries that previously produced fuel alcohol were also forced to cease production.
Because the four major forces found that if they continued to develop biofuel alcohol and biodiesel, their people would almost have no food to eat, so they wanted to stabilize the internal situation.
America acted quickly, shutting down all biofuel factories and using genetically modified corn for feed, while also squeezing out some food to give to the various smaller brothers in the Freedom Alliance.
The European Union gritted its teeth and cut off a number of small fry who were speculating in grains, vegetables and fruits, and forced agricultural suppliers to maintain low prices, which was barely enough to suppress the rise in prices.
The four major forces each showed their magical powers and helped each other to deal with this cold wave crisis.
The Sapiens company, which is sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai, has restarted about 35% of its underground lightless farms, and the supply and price of food inside are still at a very stable level.
Right at this moment.
Antarctica.
This ice and snow world that has almost been forgotten by humans has also begun to enter winter.
There are two close-to-one scientific research stations near Wilkes Land-Cape Grey in the southeast region of Antarctica.
The two research stations are the Dumont d'Urville Station in France and the Seal Station of the Sapiens Company .
The two research stations are very close to each other. How close are they? The closest distance is less than 50 meters.
What made the Gauls at the Dumont d'Urville station even more defensive was that the SEAL station was hundreds of times larger than their scientific research station.
If you look down from the sky, the Dumont d'Urville Station looks like part of the Seal Station.
In the previous period of time, the Gauls at the Dumont d'Urville station had very strong opinions about these new humans.
But at this moment they had to be thankful that they were standing next to the seal.
Marvin, the person in charge of the Dumont d'Urville Station, and Vichy, the captain of the scientific expedition team, looked at the ice and snow outside with only solemnity and helplessness on their faces.
Vichy flipped through several investigation reports: "Not only has the surrounding sea frozen ahead of time, but the thickness of the ice is also increasing. If this continues, I suspect the continental ice shelf will expand outward."
"According to the latest satellite remote sensing data, the nearest liquid ocean surface to our site is 37 kilometers away, and this distance is expanding."
Marvin rubbed his temples. "We can only rent an icebreaker from Kangaroo Country now, but according to their reply, it will take at least a week for the icebreaker to arrive here. By the way, Doctor, how thick is the surrounding ice?"
"Within 5 kilometers, the thickness is 4 to 6 meters, and beyond 5 kilometers, it is about 1 to 3 meters."
"This is not a good situation!" Marvin's face was full of worry.
Because there is a thickness limit on the ice that icebreakers can break through, ordinary icebreakers can only handle ice with a thickness of 1 to 2 meters. If the thickness of the ice exceeds 2 meters, large professional icebreakers are needed.
If the ice layer exceeds 3 meters, currently only the specific icebreakers of a few forces can open a channel, such as Lucia's nuclear-powered icebreakers, America's large icebreakers, Seris's Xuelong 2, etc.
If the ice layer exceeds 4 meters , only Lucia's nuclear-powered icebreaker can barely open a channel.
Obviously, the Kangaroo Country does not have an icebreaker of this level.
Dr. Weishi suggested: "Marvin, why don't you report to the higher-ups and ask them to communicate with the Sapiens Company to see if they can buy some daily necessities from them?"
"This..." Marvin was in a dilemma.
Of course he knew that the SEAL station next door could easily supply dozens of people with daily necessities, but the problem was the consequences of doing so.
It is a very wrong thing to cooperate with the Sapiens Company within the Europa Union now, and it is easy to get into trouble with some crazy people.
However, considering that the supplies inside the scientific research station can only last for one and a half months at most, Marvin can only think of a solution now.
He did not directly say that he wanted to purchase from the Homo Sapiens Company, but instead hinted that the research station was running out of food, and that the icebreaker leased from Kangaroo Country would most likely not be able to break through the ice, and he hoped that the Europa Consortium would find a solution as soon as possible.
Marvin's report did attract the attention of Paris.
Although they did not want to cooperate with the Sapiens Company, they were not strong enough, so they took the initiative to contact the Sapiens Company, used gold to purchase a batch of daily necessities for several scientific research stations such as the Dimont D'Aville Station, and entrusted the Sapiens Company to transport them.
For the sake of gold, the Homo Sapiens Company agreed to the purchase contract.
A few hours later.
Under the illumination of the aurora, a convoy of snowmobiles transported a batch of daily necessities to the entrance of Dumont d'Urville Station.
Ma Wen, who was wrapped tightly, saw the convoy at the door and hurriedly took the scientific expedition team members out to move things.
"Let's take inventory!" The escorting new humans handed a list of supplies to Marvin.
"Huff, huff..." Marvin's eyes flashed with envy when he saw the new humans wearing very thin clothes, but he still quickly took the list and counted everything.
The main items are vegetables, fruits, nuts, mushrooms, meat, eggs, milk, grains and condiments, as well as some emergency foods and cooking packs with built-in heating packs.
Then there are some common consumables for experiments, as well as some daily necessities, such as shampoo, shower gel, antifreeze cream, hot packs, paper towels and the like.
Marvin looked up and asked, "Excuse me, why is there no fuel?"
"Our scientific research station doesn't use fuel. You can consider pulling wires from our side, otherwise we can't do anything." The team leader Mao Dan spread his hands.
“……” Ma Wen had no choice but to accept this plan.
This is Antarctica after all. You can survive three or four days without food, but without heating, you may turn into a popsicle in a few hours.
