The sand took over… can we take this land back? | kats_journey_east

And I know you’re probably looking at this teeny, fragile thing thinking, what is that? I just want to show you the Alashan Desert in the northwest of China, not Guangdong. He thought it was just a game, like a virtual tree that you collect like Pokémon. Look at its little curly tail. Hello everyone from the desert. Today I’m going to show you guys trees, lots of trees, way more trees than you would ever expect to grow in this place. This is what this place looked like ten years ago: empty, barren sand. And now it looks like this. Okay, let me explain. There are two different types of deserts in this world. One is the type that is naturally dry and just doesn’t support any vegetation, like this place. So, natural deserts are okay. There’s nothing we can do about them, but we don’t want the natural desert to expand beyond its boundaries and start consuming land that was being used to grow things. This desert might look perfectly still, but it’s actually always on the move. Just a few decades ago, whenever the wind picked up, this whole place would turn into a massive sandstorm, and the desert was creeping south by more than 10 meters every single year. Which doesn’t sound like much, but in Earth time, that’s super fast. But over the past 10 years, Ant Forest has helped over 600,000 trees take root here. And one of those hundreds of thousands of trees is mine. The first time I ever heard of Ant Forest was when they won the 2019 Champions of the Earth Award, and I’ve been planting trees with them ever since. You might be wondering how I could possibly plant a tree all the way out here when I’ve been living in Nanjing and Hangzhou all these years. Well, let me explain to you how it works. Low-carbon activities like taking public transport, using public share bikes, and paying bills online convert to green energy in the Alipay app. Not only can you collect your own green energy, you can also steal it from your friends. And once you collect enough green energy, they plant a tree on your behalf, not just here in Inner Mongolia, but all over China. So, all these years, I’ve just been planting trees remotely, and now I finally get a chance to plant a tree in person with about 300 other people who have come here from all around the country. Now we’re on a 10-kilometer trek from the middle of the desert to the beautiful oasis that Ant Forest created, with the help of countless enthusiastic Alipay users. Over the past five years, I’ve planted 11 trees with Ant Forest. Ace Dunn, how many trees have you planted? Twelve. Ace Dunn planted more trees than me! But let me tell you guys something funny. When he first started using this app, he thought it was just a game, like a virtual tree that you collect like Pokémon. And I was the one who informed him that actually, they are planting real trees. And now we are here seeing them with our own eyes. Yeah, that’s nice. Ace Dunn is not a man of many words. How many? I was the first one to plant in 2016. It was just released by Alipay. Wow, you’re an old fan. Yeah, it’s been 10 years. I’ve planted more than 20 trees. More than 20 trees? Yes. Wow. Because I’m a working group, we don’t have much time. And we have some free time, so we just have some time to chill. There were more than 1,000 trees in the beginning, and everyone was amazing. But I didn’t have enough time to plant more than 20 trees. It was super cool to meet all these tree-planting enthusiasts from around the country. And I even met a cockroach. I’m from Guangdong. I just want to show you the Alashan Desert in the northwest of China, not Guangdong. Good, good. Guangdong elders can fly. They can fly. They’re huge and scary. Interestingly, he actually was not the only bug I encountered in these empty-looking dunes. There were actually a lot of beetles crawling around. Guys, this is the most exciting moment of this bug’s entire life. It’s like, what is that? This is the equivalent of an alien dropping down out of the sky. And finally, as we approached the forest, we started seeing other creatures. Guys, we finally found a life form other than beetles and a cockroach. There’s a lizard in these bushes. Look at its little curly tail. Most of the wildlife in these desert-adjacent ecosystems tends to be pretty small. But in some of the other places where Ant Forest has planted trees or sponsored wildlife protection zones, you can see much bigger animals. Whenever people think of China, what comes to mind is giant high-rises or ancient villages or things related to human civilization. But there’s actually a lot of nature in this country. I wish I could see it with my own eyes, but these creatures will not let humans get anywhere near them. Rightfully so, I suppose, because throughout our history, humans have been a very destructive species. But fortunately, we are doing the very opposite of that today. And I know you’re probably looking at this teeny, fragile thing thinking, what is that? It’s just a little twig, right? This is what it takes to restore a desert. Yo.
你不能简单地把一棵巨大的树放在这里，然后期望它能茁壮成长。你必须从这些小巧、坚韧的灌木开始。它在表面上看起来很小，但它有你见过的最长的根系网络。这种植物的大部分都是在地下，所以你可能会认为你看到的是一棵微不足道的小灌木，但那棵灌木却把这么多土壤紧紧抱住。那棵灌木已经深深地伸出根系去寻找水源。那棵灌木正在这片不适宜居住的景观中努力求生。你实际上可以感觉到土壤的不同。如果你触摸这里，它就像表面上有一层皮肤一样坚实，而不是在那些沙丘后面，沙子到处都在吹。还有这一层可以帮助固定土壤，保护它免受风吹或被冲走，这样我们就可以在这里拥有一个健康的生态系统。在树木被种植的地方，草长得更密，你也可以看到更多的虫子和小动物。这片区域曾经是一个死区，看到生命回归真是太好了。我喜欢这片森林的一件事就是树木没有被种植成完美的行列。它们分散在各处的小群中。这不是一种单一的物种。我们有不同种类的树木共同生长，模仿树木在自然界中的生长方式。我知道人类是完美主义者，我们喜欢整齐的行列，但那不是自然的方式。自然实际上喜欢有一点混乱，因为这会创造一个健康的栖息地，拥有多样化的环境。这就是为什么我的草坪里满是杂草。因为那是自然。它是一个繁荣的栖息地，好吗？这也是一个繁荣的栖息地，里面有很多不同的植物在一起。因为种树不仅仅是关于美化景观。你想创造一个能比我们自己的寿命更长久的生物多样性生态系统。全世界范围内，我们在过去的几十年里以不可持续的速度失去了森林。但是好消息是，随着保护工作和重新种植项目（如蚂蚁森林）的努力，一些地方的森林砍伐趋势正在慢慢逆转。谢谢。我们赢得了奖项。好吧，Ace Don赢得了奖项。破坏发生在瞬间，但让它恢复需要很长时间，尤其是在受到沙漠化威胁的地区。这里的条件很残酷，蚂蚁森林团队必须努力确保树木的生存。今天，我们将亲身经历其中的一部分。这比看起来要困难得多。你必须在开始挖掘之前清除所有松散的沙子。在大城市里，变化似乎正在以每秒的速度发生。总是有一些新技术，一些人工智能的东西。竞争非常激烈，人类正在为有限的资源而不懈努力。但在这里，感觉就像是一个完全不同的世界。生活在这里很缓慢。我可以坐在沙丘上，放空自己，观看一只小虫子爬回家。只需种一棵树，我就需要很长时间来收集足够的绿色能量。而我们刚刚种植的所有这些小树，要它们长到我的大腿那么高，需要很多年。它们需要大约十年才能长到这么大。这是我的五秒钟注意力无法理解的耐心水平。在过去的十年里，当世界的大部分地区都在忙于跟上竞争时，在中国这里有一群人专注于一件事：种树。他们的使命是把这片荒芜的沙漠变成一个生命可以重新扎根的地方，一棵树接着一棵树。来到这里，你会感到生活中有完全不同的节奏。你让时间按照自己的轨迹发展。进步可能非常缓慢，但只要你坚持下去，变化就会发生。无论世界其他地方发生什么，我都会继续在蚂蚁森林中收集绿色能量，继续种植这些可爱的小树。这是我可以为一个更加绿色和美丽的世界做出的微小贡献，我希望你也会加入。