The relationship between weather change and human beings?

Throughout history, human activities have influenced the climate, and the influence of climate change has also affected every country and individual. At many moments of human development, climate often exerts its power and becomes an invisible hand that affects the historical trend.

In the center of Tarim Basin surrounded by Tianshan Mountains, Kunlun Mountains and Pamirs, there is a desert in vast expanse-Taklimakan. In this largest desert in China, the melting snow of Tianshan Mountain and Kunlun Mountain forms the longest inland river in China-Tarim River. Tarim River flows through more than 2,000 kilometers and finally flows into Lop Nur, which was called Puchanghai in Han Dynasty. Puchanghai has brought vitality to the desert, and it has become the most beautiful oasis in the desert. On the northwest coast of Puchanghai, there was once a beautiful country-Loulan.

In the second century BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions for three times, and Loulan entered the vision of Central Plains people for the first time, and the ancient Silk Road connecting East and West began to rise. Merchants from east to west, led by camel teams, came to this rare oasis in the desert to rest and replenish supplies, and Loulan, the pearl of the desert, flourished unprecedentedly.

Sandwiched between Xiongnu and Han Dynasty, King Loulan had to be careful. In 77 BC, Fu Jiezi, the ambassador of the Han Dynasty, was ordered to slay the pro-Xiongnu Loulan King at a banquet in the name of reward, and made Tu Jian, a former hostage of the Han Dynasty, king. In order to prevent Loulan from rebelling again, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered Loulan people to move to vilen, not far from Yixun City, to establish their own new capital, Mud City, and to change the title to Shanshan.

After the Han army moved the Loulan people, it began to build the Great Wall and stationed troops in Loulan area. In order to solve the logistics problem, the Han army and farmers from the mainland habitually began to reclaim wasteland. Sharp plows cut off pieces of shrubs and weeds and piled them in the open space to burn to ashes. According to historical records, the Western Han Dynasty stationed about 1 10,000 troops in Loulan, with a maximum of1.5,000 troops. According to each foot soldier farming 15 mu of land, when the number of people is the largest, it can farm nearly 230,000 mu (about150,000 square kilometers). In the heyday of the Han army's reclamation, almost all the oases in Loulan City were reclaimed as farmland. At the same time, people also cut down a large number of slow-growing houses in Hu Yangshu, and manual workshops and folk cooking fires also consumed a lot of trees. The local people in Loulan are different from the Han people. Most of them live on animal husbandry and rarely farm.

Without the shelter of trees, it is followed by more and more fierce sun and endless yellow sand. Under people's "unintentional" destruction, the Loulan wild vegetation system that survived hundreds of millions of years of evolution was destroyed, trees were cut down, crops produced after land reclamation were taken away, and the surface was completely exposed. Under the action of drought and wind, the adjacent sand sources are constantly invading, and the soil in the oasis becomes easy to flow and is constantly lost under the wind.

Agricultural production consumes a lot of water, which makes the amount of water in Lop Nur smaller and smaller, and Puchanghai is disappearing. Farmland is not irrigated, grain production is seriously reduced, the life of the garrison is becoming more and more difficult to maintain in the later period, and the supply of rations is becoming increasingly tight. The garrison government had to issue orders many times to ask officers and men to save rations. According to the documents unearthed in Loulan, the rations of the garrison at that time began as "one person eats two liters a bucket", then decreased to "one person eats eight liters" and then decreased to "one person eats six liters". The last Loulan official, Wang Heng and others, returned to Luoyang with the transfer order and the soldiers stationed in Loulan.

The disappearance of the ancient city of Loulan occurred in the context of the world's climate drought. Because most rivers in the Tarim Basin come from glacial meltwater and rainfall, the drying and cooling of the climate greatly reduces the river water volume, shortens the river flow and collapses the Tarim River system. Loulan is facing the test of nature, but the ending is not doomed. Regrettably, mankind has turned the last chance into an adventurous gamble of fate. As a result, humans lost. In the end, the ancient country of Loulan was swallowed up by the endless desert.

The cold dealt a blow to the ambition of the Mongolian Empire to explore the west.

From the12nd century to the13rd century, the grassland in Central Asia has a relatively warm climate, abundant water, rich pasture and a large increase in population and herds. A terrible military force has emerged on this grassland-Mongolians believe that glorious soldiers cannot die of old age in their hometown, so conquest has become an inevitable choice.

In AD 1240, Badou, the grandson of Genghis Khan, led150,000 troops to the west. The prelude of the Mongolian empire's struggle for Europe was thus opened. The Mongolian army defeated the allied forces of Kiev, Poland and Germany one by one, then crossed the Danube and marched westward on a large scale. The Mongolian army of the Western Expedition plunged Europe into panic and trembling, and was called "the whip of God" by westerners.

The secret of Mongolian army's victory lies in cavalry. In the cold weapon era before the invention of artillery, the strength of cavalry was equivalent to that of artillery in the hot weapon era. Whoever has mastered it will have mastered the initiative in the war. The Mongols took the cavalry to the extreme and reached the peak of the cold weapon era. The most basic factor that determines the success or failure of cavalry is the earliest and most loyal friend of mankind-horse.

Although horses bring the necessary raw materials for herdsmen's life and the convenience of fast moving and attacking, their physiological characteristics also determine their fatal weakness. Unlike cows, horses have a rumen in their digestive system, which enables cows to digest and store more protein than horses, while horses can't ruminate because they don't have rumen, and their digestion and absorption of nutrients are not very good. This means that horses must have enough forage protection.

However, from 1260 to 1368, the Mongolian grassland became very cold, especially in 1260, the temperature suddenly dropped, and the temperature remained unchanged for the next 200 years. Mongolian grassland is located in the hinterland of Eurasia, surrounded by mountain plateaus, and it is difficult for humid ocean air to reach. So as long as the airflow is blocked, drought will come, and many horses will die after a cold winter or a dry summer. The climate change on Mongolian grassland quietly intervened in history, and this time the cooling almost destroyed the whole grassland, so Badou and his western Mongolian knights had to put down their knives. They originally planned to invade Austria, destroy Vienna, then advance along the vassal States of Germany, and then point the attack at Italy and even the whole of Europe. Who knew providence was unpredictable? Climate change is more powerful than tribes, and the cold has hurt the ambitions of Mongolians.

Energy and machines are warming the earth gradually.

1769, the Englishman Watt made technical improvement on the basis of the original steam engine and manufactured a real industrial steam engine. Before that, the motive force of British industrial production mainly depended on water power and wood, which was very obvious and had to be limited by location, season, climate, traffic, labor force and other conditions. For the first time, the steam engine enabled mankind to hold such a huge amount of energy in their own hands. As long as there is coal as fuel, they can start the steam engine. The slow progress of handicraft industry in the factory instantly turned into the soaring output, and the scientific fantasy of human beings began to quickly become a reality.

Steam engines are inseparable from the massive consumption of coal, and Manchester in England has become the city of coking coal. Dickens described in the novel Hard Times: This is a city full of machines and towering chimneys. Outside the city, endless vicious smoke will never spread. There are many buildings like cancer. The windows on the wall rattle all day, and the piston of the steam engine moves up and down monotonously, just like the head of an elephant suffering from depression.

1In the 1940s, the number of industrial workers in Manchester accounted for 85% of the city's population, and nearly 500 chimneys in the city were smoking. In order to ensure that the environment in Manchester is not affected as much as possible, the factory owner's solution is to raise the chimney as much as possible. For a long time, towering chimneys have been regarded as a visual symbol of the rich financial resources of factory owners. However, smog still hangs over the British Isles, hence the name "Fog Capital" in London, and acid rain full of toxic substances begins to come frequently. Nevertheless, the industrial revolution using black coal as energy began to spread all over the world.

The use of energy has enhanced human's ability to influence the environment and climate. Since the industrial revolution, human beings have burned coal, oil, natural gas and trees, producing a lot of carbon dioxide and methane, which has increased the greenhouse gas content in the atmosphere by 25%, and the earth has gradually warmed under the action of energy and machinery. When human beings use energy to transform the environment and climate, climate also begins to punish human beings, such as dense fog, acid rain, sewage, greenhouse effect and sea level rise. ...

Using machines and energy, man can control his future for the first time. What you do and what you don't do will have a far-reaching impact on the future. Does this world bring us collapse and decline, or the continuation or glory of civilization? All this ultimately depends on human's own choice.