September Documentary |
Edited | July
In August 2016, Alipay launched a mini program called "Ant Forest", in which a virtual sapling was planted first, and then Alipay users obtained green energy by accumulating steps and using Alipay offline payment, and then used this energy to water the small saplings.
When the saplings grow up, ant forest partners will plant a real tree in the great northwest of China's desert, or the user will receive a corresponding protected area. The purpose of this is to motivate users to continue low-carbon environmental protection behavior.
The app is essentially a public good. The original intention of the ant forest is to stimulate everyone's awareness of protecting the environment and planting trees.
During this period, Ma Yun also promised hundreds of millions of netizens: "Plant 100 million trees every year." ”
Now that five years have passed, what happened to these trees?
The upline of the Ant Forest
Since the ant forest was launched, it is true that a wave of tree planting has been set off, and 450 million Alipay users have saved more green energy in order to save more green energy, and the daily travel status is that those who can ride a bicycle will never drive, and they will walk one more kilometer. Some people insist on taking the bus every day to work.
When paying for offline purchases, be sure to pay with Alipay. A series of operations just to save a little more green energy.
In order to get more green energy, some users regularly steal the energy of Alipay friends every day.
After some "careful cultivation" of the user, the virtual saplings have successfully grown. Finally, a real tree was planted on Earth by ant forest's pro bono partners, and each tree was numbered.
As long as users do a little low-carbon environmental protection every day, and then converge into a green energy, they can get a real tree, collect enough energy to unlock a new tree, and the platform will issue an environmental protection certificate to the user while planting a new tree.
As of 2022, Ant Forest has launched a total of 17 trees, and the green energy required by each tree is different, and the larger the tree species, the more green energy is needed.
But tree species that require less green energy have become the first choice for many users.
The Ant Forest platform also often gives users a response to their real tree planting situation, or shows the protected areas that users have obtained. The more good news they bring back, the more they can inspire users to plant trees.
Among them, lemon strips and shuttle trees are the least energy required of all tree species. Spruce and Huashan pine tree species require more green energy, and users need to collect energy for a long time if they want to plant these more "expensive" tree species.
This also stimulates the user's desire to insist on collecting energy every day, and also drives the behavior of many people to travel low-carbon.
Because of the launch of the ant forest, many people living in areas with suitable environments truly understand the harsh environment in the northwest region of the mainland, and many users also want to do something for the harsh areas of the motherland.
As of August 2019, Alipay users have increased from 450 million to 500 million. With the combined efforts of these 500 million users, they emit a total of 720 tons of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. 122 million trees have been planted on Earth.
In 2019, Ma Yun went to ant forest for field investigation. In the desert of Yima Pingchuan, he saw that small green saplings were regularly planted in the desert, and at the inspection site, he looked at this vast land and said: "The trees in the ant forest have almost exceeded 100 million, if we can plant 100 million trees every year, 1 million mu per year, then I believe that in the near future, this land will be better, and our motherland will become more beautiful." ”
The most that everyone has done for this public welfare is to do some low-carbon environmental protection small things every day, and you can plant a tree on the earth without bothering and laboring, but behind this public welfare, Ma Yun is really taking countless funds and manpower to carry out these projects.
On the one hand, Ant Forest drives the majority of users to carry out low-carbon environmental protection, and on the other hand, it also increases the number of users for Alipay. It's a two-pronged thing.
In September of the same year, Ma announced his retirement from Alibaba. This move of his did not make everyone think of it, but everyone is more concerned about whether the oath that promised everyone to plant 100 million trees a year still counts?
Can the trees of the Ant Forest continue to be planted? If the project is terminated because of Ma Yun's departure, then everyone's efforts are not in vain?
Fortunately, the result of the matter was not as bad as everyone thought, and after Ma Yun left Ali, everything in the Ant Forest continued as usual, and everyone was at ease planting trees.
But the trees that users plant on their mobile phones are not real after all, and they also want to see what happened to the real tree they planted.
Ant Forest faces a crisis of trust
In September 2021, a netizen came to the Gobi Desert of the Alxa League in Inner Mongolia, which is a planting area for ant forests. He took a photo here and posted it online, causing an uproar.
In the photo, there is a sign inserted in the desert, which reads: "This 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." ”
But from this photo we can see that behind this sign is an endless desert, and not a single tree is seen.
Ant Forest officials have announced as early as the spring of 2019 that all the shuttle trees in Forest 277 have been planted. Now that it has been two years, everyone still hasn't seen the shadow of a tree.
If it weren't for the sign of an ant forest, who would have thought that this was a tree planted by countless Alipay users.
Because of the news of this photo, the majority of netizens attacked it in groups and ran to the official bottom of Alipay to ask where the trees planted with their hard-earned energy went.
Ant Forest is a public welfare activity, is it true that this public welfare has been a scam from beginning to end, so it is a big effort to publicize Ant Forest, just to attract traffic to Alipay?
Netizens look at their hard-earned environmental protection certificates, is it just a "waste paper" without any meaning?
With the continuous fermentation of public opinion, a large number of netizens claimed to quit the ant forest and no longer plant trees. For a time, the Internet was full of voices questioning the ant forest, believing that there was a fraud in the ant forest.
Ant Forest officials also gave an explanation for this phenomenon: "Unlike other rainy places, people living in the desert have become accustomed to looking down at the trees. 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. ”
One-sided words naturally cannot dispel the doubts of netizens. In order to let everyone know the truth of the matter more clearly, the reporter of Red Star News also went to the Alxa League for field investigation.
Master Yang, the person in charge of this forest area, revealed to reporters that there are indeed trees here, and only when you walk in can you see them. Under the reminder of Master Yang, the reporter found a small sapling not far away.
The reporter also repeatedly asked Master Yang whether this was the shuttle tree planted, and Master Yang replied yes. This seedling that grows in a small pit is a shuttle tree, and those who don't know think it is a weed.
The reporter followed the appearance of this tree and found many such shuttle trees in other places.
However, the appearance of these shuttle trees is different, and some of them grow well and look healthy. But some shuttle trees are not only small, but also very "childly" to give people a state that it is about to die.
Two years have passed since the trees were planted, so why are they still in this state?
Windproof and sand fixing and afforestation have never been just slogans
This has to start from the geographical environment of the Alxa League. The Inner Mongolia region of the mainland contains 5 major deserts, of which the Alxa League area accounts for 4.
That is to say, the Alxa League area is the largest desert in Inner Mongolia, covering an area of 94,700 square kilometers, which is also one of the places with the most serious desertification.
According to locals in the Alxa League area, there are very few plants that can survive here.
Coupled with the alxa league region's already arid climate, the annual rainfall is more than 200 mm. Outsiders can't stand it for a day here, let alone some small saplings.
Most of us think that a thriving tree should be much taller than an adult, but it is not. For example, the planted shuttle tree can generally grow to a height of 1 to 9 meters.
However, the Alxa League region is dry, and the land is still relatively hard. In this environment, when the shuttle tree actually grows, it is 40 centimeters tall, and this height will wait for ten or eight years.
This shows the degree of drought in the Alxa League region.
At this point, some people may ask, why do you have to plant shuttle trees in the desert, is it not good to choose other varieties of trees?
Most of the time, the shuttle tree is more suitable for growing in the desert, because it is tenacious, whether it is in the desert or in the Gobi Desert it can survive.
Although the shuttle tree grows slowly, it survives for a long time, an adult shuttle tree can live for a hundred years, and in the harsh environment, the shuttle tree can also grow rapidly, and the fecundity is still very strong.
It is like a warrior guarding the frontier, adapting to an extremely harsh environment. In the desert with no edge in sight, only it stood tall.
The reporter measured the survival rate of the shuttle tree in this area in the No. 277 woodland, and the results showed that the survival rate was about 75 percent, and the planting situation was good.
Here netizens' misunderstanding of the ant forest is solved, although this is a misunderstanding, but also let more people see the hardships behind this public welfare, countless staff in the arid desert, one by one planting small saplings.
In the northwest region, where water resources and its shortages are scarce, if you rely on the sky to appreciate the rain, countless green plants will be killed by drought. The staff of the ant forest also have to travel thousands of miles to pull water over to water the seedlings.
And this tree can not be planted anytime and anywhere, but also according to the seasonal climate to plant trees in batches.
Among them, some saplings cannot adapt to the environment and die early.
This also allows more netizens to see the difficulty of planting trees. Windproof and sand fixing and afforestation have never been just slogans.
When the Alxa League first planted the shuttle tree, many people saw that the Gobi Desert was still endlessly desolate, with only a little bit of green, and some people thought that this green could have a role.
In the 1990s, sandstorms often occurred in the Alxa League, and many locals were hit by sandstorms every year, and in severe cases, even the houses they lived in were damaged.
In the 21st century, the state began to attach importance to environmental protection and afforestation. The number of sandstorms has also been greatly reduced.
Today, the green area of Alxa League has reached 20%.
These achievements are inseparable from the policies implemented by the state and the efforts of the broad masses, and ant forests have also made great contributions in this regard.
According to statistics, as of May 2022, the number of trees planted by users in ant forests has increased from 122 million in 2019 to 200 million, with a planting area of more than 2.74 million mu.
Not long ago, the ant forest official also handed users a copy of the results of their five years of planting trees.
So far, 600 million people have participated in the Ant Forest Public Welfare Project, and 326 million trees have been planted on the earth in the past five years.
These trees are distributed in 11 provinces including Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai, with a planting area of more than 3.97 million mu.
Although there is still a gap between this data and Ma Yun's original commitment to plant 100 million trees a year, this is really the result of everyone's joint efforts. I believe that in the near future, the goal of planting 100 million trees per year will be achieved.
epilogue
In the wind and sand fixation, afforestation Alipay has played a good leading role, in the joint efforts of everyone, the original lifeless desert, there have been many green life, and now more and more land on the mainland began to turn green.
Although the green area has been greatly improved, the problem of land barrenness in the northwest region of the mainland has still not been solved, and we still have a long way to go on the road of improving the environment.
Transforming the environment is not only for the sake of our current lives, but also for future generations to survive on this earth.
We are now advocating for the protection of the environment because we are doing things that are destroying the environment. We ourselves live in nature, and everything in life is inseparable from the gifts of nature.
If you just blindly ask for it from nature, then you can only usher in the punishment of nature.
Jinshan Yinshan is not as good as green water and green mountains, while human beings take from nature like nature, human beings must also learn to be grateful to give back to nature, so that more land is no longer desertified, more water sources fade and pollute, so that more animals no longer face extinction.
Jinshan Yinshan is not as good as green water and green mountains
Environmental protection must first be based on nature, in front of nature, how small human beings appear, if the environment is allowed to continue, it will be difficult for human beings to survive, let alone the pursuit of high-quality development.
The premise for human beings to achieve long-term development is to have enough reverence and protection for nature.