In September 2021, a netizen posted a video in the mainland's Alxa League, which only had dust in the sky and no trace of greenery and vitality. It was an ordinary video, but it caused an uproar, and even pushed the ant forest to the cusp of the storm.
It turns out that the place in this netizen video is the place where Ant Forest promised to plant trees. According to the plan, the land should have 150,000 trees thriving, but not a single one. It has been nearly six years since Alipay launched Ant Forest in 2016, calling on everyone to protect the environment and plant trees. During the period, Ma Yun also promised: "Plant 100 million trees every year!" ”
Everyone began to question, is Ant Forest really doing public welfare? Is this a scam?
Propagation effect of ant forests
Over the years, the protection of the environment is an eternal topic, the new slogan of the times "green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, the mainland has always adhered to the view of symbiosis between man and nature, and even put the two words of environmental protection into the hearts of every citizen.
In August 2016, Alipay, with 450 million real-name users, launched Ant Forest. In simple terms, Ant Forest is similar to a small game of cultivation. As long as the user logs in to Alipay and participates in the activities of the ant forest, his daily behavior, such as walking, taking the bus and subway, etc. will be regarded as an emission reduction behavior, thus accumulating a certain amount of energy.
In addition to accumulating energy in this way, users can also "steal" the energy of other users, energy can raise the user's virtual saplings, and finally you can plant a tree in the real world, and each small tree planted by Alipay users has its own unique number.
The Ant Forest caused a sensation as soon as it was launched. With the touch of your fingers, you can gather every bit of your daily life into a real tree, and it will be planted in the desert to contribute to the protection of the environment, which sounds so beautiful.
People who have used Alipay know that Ant Forest has occupied a prominent position on the home page of Alipay for many years, and many ant forest users are willing to do more to reduce carbon emissions in order to accumulate more energy, and even some people get up at 5 o'clock every morning to collect freshly updated energy, causing a wave of "planting trees". As a result, the ant forest has attracted more and more people's attention, and the harsh environment in the northwest region of the mainland has become a hot topic.
The northwest region of the mainland is in the hinterland of Eurasia, and the word drought is synonymous with the northwest region, and many areas have less than 200 mm of precipitation throughout the year, and even some places have almost no rain all year round. The harsh climate, combined with previous mishandling, has led to increasing desertification in the Northwest Territories. The lack of rainwater, coupled with human reasons, has made the northwest region sparsely vegetated and the wind and sand spread.
The emergence of ant forests is more like the sustenance of people living in places with good wind and rain for environmental protection and public welfare, and everyone wants to contribute to the northwest region, even if it is a small tree, they also want to let it take root in the northwest and block the wind and sand. This is not just a public welfare game, but a real love public welfare in reality.
Jack Ma field trip
In fact, when Alipay first launched the Ant Forest, it may not have expected such a big response, and the Ant Forest has also changed from planting trees at the beginning to today's multi-faceted environmental protection public welfare activities. Ant Forest has become a medium that carries the enthusiasm of countless netizens, whether it is to participate in carbon reduction activities every day to earn some energy, or to go to the homepage of friends and family to steal some energy, everyone is happy to do it.
In the Great Northwest, Ant Forest also provides millions of jobs. By 2020, the number of users of Ant Forest has reached 550 million, and the number of saplings planted by netizens has exceeded 200 million, with a total area of 2.8 million mu. What is the concept of these numbers? 2.8 million mu is equivalent to 18.67 million square kilometers, which is equivalent to one and a half Hong Kong.
After seeing the popularity of ant forest, everyone has followed suit, held a lot of public welfare activities, and even some colleges and universities have held competition activities.
In 2019, Henan University and Zhengzhou University held competitions. The goal of the competition is to compete for the energy collected within the specified time. The final winner receives Alipay's official prize, a ton of broccoli.
Although Henan University won the victory in the end, Alipay officials also sent a ton of broccoli to Zhengzhou University in order to commemorate the efforts of Zhengzhou University.
In 2019, Ma Yun came to ant forest for field investigation. Looking at the endless desert and the dots of green, Ma Yun said in front of the sky: "The trees in the ant forest are about to exceed 100 million, if there are 100 million trees per year, 1 million mu per year, then I believe that in the near future, this land will be better, and our China will become more beautiful." ”
The entrepreneur's ambition inspires everyone, after all, netizens are just moving their fingers, while Ma Yun is using real money and silver, spending countless financial resources and manpower to truly practice this matter.
On the one hand, ant forests can promote the spirit of environmental protection. On the other hand, Ant Forest can increase the number of Alipay users and increase Alipay's daily activity. However, the operating costs of the ant forest are all borne by Ma Yun.
However, in September 2019, Ma Yun announced that he would step down from Alibaba's board of directors. While this news surprises everyone, many users of Ant Forest will have some doubts in their hearts, is Ma Yun's promise still counted? Can the trees of the Ant Forest continue to be planted? Will Alipay continue to do public welfare? Many questions reflect people's uneasy hearts.
But with the passage of time, everything is still proceeding in an orderly manner, the ant forest has not been affected in any way, and Alipay is still fulfilling Ma Yun's promise of planting 100 million trees a year. No matter how much the cost is smashed, as long as it can contribute to the public welfare cause, Alipay is willing to eat. At this moment, everyone breathed a long sigh of relief and continued to accumulate energy day after day, hoping that their little tree would grow up as soon as possible.
In March 2020, the Ant Forest Online Concert was successfully held, with more than 10 million likes from the audience, more than 10 public welfare stars appearing, and even loyal users of Ant Forest singing. They showed the wonderful performance to everyone, hoping that netizens can insist on planting trees with mobile phones, accumulate energy, and make a contribution to public welfare, and Alipay will definitely plant every tree into the soil so that every love can be implemented.
Public welfare fraud is only for drainage, is there really a thing or a misunderstanding?
After all, the network is a network, although the small saplings are vibrant on the mobile phone, but in the real world, how do the saplings of active users grow?
In the Inner Mongolia region of the mainland, there are 5 major deserts, and the Alxa League includes 4 of the 5 major deserts. In September 2021, an incident occurred in the desert-like part of Alxa League, where ShengSheng pushed the ant forest to the cusp of the storm.
A netizen took a photo on the Gobi Desert of alxa league. The sign in the photo is very eye-catching, saying "This area is The area is The 277th Ant Forest, covering an area of 3334 acres, and a total of 150,000 shuttle trees have been planted in this area." ”
According to Ant Forest, Forest 277 was planted in the spring of 2019. However, more than two years have passed, and when I look around, I don't see a single tree. The Gobi Desert is full of people, and if it weren't for the signs still standing, no one would have thought that this was the ant forest planted by everyone.
After all, ant forest is a low-carbon theme public welfare activity, so many people have planted small trees in ant forest, and even paid a lot of effort. Thousands of netizens began to question the fraud of the ant forest, and even thought that the ant forest was a tool for drainage.
In this regard, the ant forest official gave an explanation: due to the special environment of the Alxa League, according to the special terrain conditions, the density of the planting of the shuttle tree is relatively sparse, and because the rain in Alxa is extremely scarce, the shuttle tree grows very slowly. From a distance, you can only see the pit where the shuttle tree is planted, and you can only see the low seedlings when you get closer.
In order to be responsible for hundreds of millions of ant forest users, the reporter of Red Star News also personally went to alxa league at that time to find the truth behind the ant forest. After actually arriving at the Alxa League, some staff members said: "The Alxa League is the place with the most deserts in Inner Mongolia, and the land desertification in this area is also very serious." ”
According to statistics, the desert area of Alxa League is 94,700 square kilometers, accounting for more than one-third of the total area of Alxa League. The vegetation here is sparse, and most of them are shrubs, and the terrain is already harsh. However, the climate of Alxa League is even drier, and it is difficult to receive more than 200 mm of rainfall here throughout the year. What kind of concept is 200 mm?
For example, southern cities receive more than 200 millimeters of rain in a month during the summer months. In the Alxa League, it is extremely difficult for outsiders to survive for a day, not to mention these delicate little saplings.
"Unlike other rainy places, people living in the desert have become accustomed to looking down at the trees," local residents said. Because of the shrubs that grow in the Alxa League, most of them can only grow to a height of less than 1 meter, and even at the seedling stage, the height can only be 20 or 30 centimeters. Take the shuttle tree as an example, the height of an adult shuttle tree is about 40 centimeters, and these 40 centimeters also take many years to grow, so it is really impossible to see from a distance. ”
In fact, in the eyes of the locals of the Alxa League, the reason why everyone will question the suspicion of counterfeiting in the ant forest is because everyone's inherent concepts are different. In most people's concepts, it is believed that trees should be tall, so according to the photos posted by netizens, at a glance, there are no towering trees, and they mistakenly think that there are no saplings.
It is this difference in perception that leads people to question the ant forest.
The soil is poor, the water is extremely scarce, and the saplings are struggling to survive
Take, for example, Forest 277. Forest No. 277 was planted by the China Greening Foundation, and the local staff in charge of planting also said: "Each shuttle tree is planted according to the operation on the user's mobile phone." After planting, they will also carry out acceptance, and if there are unqualified saplings, they will also arrange for manpower to replant. In terms of numbers, the staff will also carry out repeated verification, so the small trees planted by netizens on their mobile phones are completely real. ”
In the Northwest, you look away and think that the green thing is grass. In fact, when you look closer, you know that it is a bush. As the saying goes, "If you want to be rich, first plant trees." To plant trees, water first. ”
But in the Northwest, water is extremely scarce. Relying on God's rainfall, it is impossible to form dense woods. The staff of the ant forest could only pull water from afar, first planing the pit, then planting saplings and watering a scoop of water.
For these saplings, a scoop of water is already a good "reward". Of course, desert areas have poor soils, saplings grow extremely slowly, and "stunted" and "premature death" abound.
For example, the saplings of the shuttle tree are not even as thick as the little thumb, many of them are not yet palm-length, and due to the influence of the soil and precipitation of the Alxa League, only about 45 shuttle trees are planted on an acre of land, which is very sparse.
The professional said: "Plants are like people, dozens of people share a bowl of rice, and everyone can't eat enough." If desert plants want to thrive, they should pay more attention to the density of planting. ”
In this way, the invisible patches of green do not mean that there are no trees planted, and netizens have indeed misunderstood the ant forest.
In recent years, with the slogans of environmental protection and afforestation gradually becoming popular, more and more people have participated in these activities. Many people who set foot on deserts such as the Alxa League and the Gobi for the first time will feel that their eyes are full of yellow sand, thinking that these dots of green have no effect.
But this is not the case, and the elderly people who have grown up in the Alxa League can be said to have witnessed the changes in the Alxa League over the past few decades.
The old people say that the changes in the Alxa League are very big. In the 1990s, sandstorms in the Alxa League were frequent, and even a wide range of strong sandstorms occurred, and even houses were swept up.
However, in the 21st century, after the country began to carry out large-scale greening construction, the number of sandstorms became less and less frequent.
In the 1990s, there was basically no green in the Alxa League, and the vegetation coverage rate was below 10%, but in recent years, the vegetation coverage rate of the Alxa League has reached more than 20%.
These changes are inseparable from the country's principles and policies, and they are also inseparable from the concerted efforts of the people of the whole country, and ant forest is an outstanding representative of them. The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility, and the ant forest has indeed set an excellent example for the people of the whole country.
Although the vegetation coverage rate has increased significantly, the problem of land desertification in the northwest region is still prominent, which requires people to never give up and continue to fight against the desert.
I believe that in the near future, the Northwest Region will definitely become better. The shuttle tree planted by the ant forest user will certainly grow tall and strong after ten years and eight years, and contribute its own touch of green in the task of wind and sand fixation.
epilogue
Without accumulating steps, there are no thousands of miles. Without accumulating small streams, there is no way to become a river and a sea. The role of a small tree may not be great, but so many of our environmentalists will definitely make small trees grow into forests one after another.
"Jun did not see the horse river walking in the snow sea, and the flat sand was reckless and yellow into the sky." The wind roared in September, and the rubble of a river was as big as a bucket, and it walked with the wind and stones all over the ground. This poem is a very vivid description of the harsh climate of the northwest region, and it also proves that the ancients were very afraid of the desert.
But today's people choose to face the difficulties, to fight against the yellow sand, against hunger and thirst, and against poverty and backwardness. Encouraged by national policies, Ant Forest has set a good example for everyone. It uses small games to encourage everyone to participate in environmental protection and participate in public welfare, and it has to be said that the role of the Internet is very powerful, it brings people from all over the world together, and exerts everyone's strength in the same place.
Of course, in recent years, in addition to the organizational strength at the national level, there are also the painstaking efforts of the people, who are all contributing to changing all this. Some people also participate in environmental protection in their own names, donating saplings, building parks, developing new energy, and so on.
Don't be small and good, environmental protection from now on!