In this world, the warmest place is not by a campfire under the sun, but in a broad heart and a beautiful heart; The coldest places are not Antarctica and the Arctic, but in the greedy and cold hearts of selfish people.
The night sky is chaotic, the wilderness is misty. In the fields, the scattered fires are burning unbridled; In the air, there was a choking smoke. Zhou Xinghe turned on the headlights of the car and slowly marched through the empty field. For several nights, Zhou Xinghe took reporters from the newspaper office to conduct research in the fields of Chengdu's suburban county.
A godsend!
In the end, Zhou Xinghe's invention of green building materials with straw as the main raw material seems to confirm a Chinese idiom: there is much help for the righteous, but little help for the wrong - this "Dao", the author understands, should refer to the will of God and the people.
On May 14, 1998, the media reported under the headline "Thick Smoke Rises Again in the Suburbs": "Last night, the hotline of this newspaper was called one after another, almost all of which reflected the situation of farmers burning wheat straw in the suburbs. Mr. Lai of the flight department of Southwest Airlines told reporters that due to the smoke, two civilian planes preparing to land in Chengdu had to fly to Chongqing to land.
A resident of a nearby home called to say that as soon as it got dark, farmers lit wheat stalks piled in their fields, and smoke rose immediately. Another resident called and said that by 10 p.m., the entire county town and its vicinity had become a smoky area, and residents had to close their doors and windows, not daring to go out. An airline pilot called to tell reporters that when he landed at the airport after 8 o'clock, he saw that the airport was shrouded in smoke, and by 9 o'clock he could not see the runway clearly. Mr. Lai, who was on duty at the flight, told reporters that by 9 p.m., the visibility of the airport was less than 800 meters because of the smoke, which not only prevented the plane from landing, but also brought great trouble to the route command, aircraft refueling, and accommodation for passengers and pilots..."
On May 15, 1998, the media reported under the headline "Smoke Shrouded in City, Citizens Complain Everywhere": "Last night, thick smoke on the outskirts of the city shrouded the city, and the reporter's phone rang non-stop from 8 to 11 p.m., and the same complaint was heard: 'Come out and see, this smoke is too uncomfortable. As soon as I went out, thick smoke filled the sky, and shouts of 'close windows, close windows' were heard from time to time in the residential area. The university teacher also called at 11 o'clock to say that the smoke on campus was choking, making it difficult to sleep, some people kept coughing, and some felt chest tightness..."
Immediately afterwards, the General Office of the Municipal Party Committee and the General Office of the Municipal People's Government issued the "Emergency Notice on Prohibiting the Burning of Crop Straw". The "Circular" talks about the common phenomenon and great harm of straw burning, strictly orders all district and county governments to take strict measures to prohibit straw burning, and strictly proposes that those who are prohibited and do not stop should be resolutely investigated and dealt with according to law!
Zhou Xinghe is very keen, when he first saw the newspaper reports about the large-scale burning of straw in the suburbs, affecting the landing of aircraft and polluting the environment, he immediately realized the important connection between this matter and his career, and the new building materials project he invented using straw as raw materials provided a godsend opportunity to solve the problem of straw burning! So, for several days in a row, in order to obtain first-hand information, as soon as it got dark, he pulled up reporters from newspapers or television stations and rushed between the fields. He wants to investigate the real reason for the repeated ban on straw burning and how to solve the problem.
Zhou Xinghe knows that there is an old saying in China: stop "the law does not blame the public", this urgent notice of the municipal government, in the face of the overwhelming vigorous straw burning, I am afraid it is just a dead letter!
The situation was as Zhou Xinghe expected.
On May 18, 1998, the third day after the issuance of the Circular, it was reported: "As of 2 p.m. yesterday, the smoke from farmers' straw burning had delayed or cancelled 37 flights at the airport, plus 4 flights that had been forced to cancel yesterday's make-up shift the night before, resulting in a serious incident in which 61 flights could not fly normally in one day." Yesterday, a joint investigation team formed by provincial and municipal environmental protection bureaus investigated the thick smoke, saying: Recent situations have shown that the situation of burning straw is not limited to some districts and counties in our city, and the possibility of burning the entire plain and surrounding areas cannot be ruled out; Coupled with the special geographical environment of our city located at the 'bottom of the pot' of the basin, the smoke that shrouded our city could not be dispersed for a while, accumulated more and more, and finally reached a very serious point yesterday..."
For a time, all the media joined the report on straw burning polluting the environment, affecting the takeoff and landing of aircraft, and affecting the health of citizens, calling on relevant departments to solve this problem as soon as possible. In the evening of the harvest season, at least tens of thousands of people in all districts and counties were organized to patrol the fields - but the peasants and government workers in the vast area fought guerrilla warfare and sparrow warfare: you advance and I retreat, you retreat and I burn, you are tired and disturbed, and it is impossible to prevent it.
But how easy it is to solve the problem of straw burning in the plains for thousands of years!
In the past, the plains were relatively sparsely populated, there was no pollution from industrial smoke and automobile exhaust, and there were no planes landing in the sky, so the contradiction was not so prominent, and no one cared.
Today, Zhou Xinghe is still driving slowly in the field.
Despite numerous media reports on the burning of straw polluting the environment, despite the harsh wording of the government's ban and the hard work of government workers, Zhou Xinghe and reporters marched in the fields of nearby suburban counties, the fires burning the straw were still scattered, the smoke still covered the sky and the moon, and several figures swayed from time to time by the fire.
After two or three days, Zhou Xinghe also learned to be smart, saw the fire from a distance, stopped the car and turned off the fire, and a person slowly walked towards the fire and the figure of the fire, he wanted to have a good conversation with these peasant brothers...
On September 5, 2021, the "Voice of the People" column on page 38 of the fourth issue of "Clean Government Internal Reference" published the headline "A Subversive Revolution in the Field of Mainland Architecture and Building Materials", in which the third section (page 42) of the subtitle "May the great invention of Xinghe new materials be vigorously promoted by the state and benefit mankind": "In today's China, there are two people and two projects to use the high-tech achievements developed by themselves to go to the world: one is Mr. Yuan Longping and his hybrid rice, which are solving people's feeding problems; One is Mr. Zhou Xinghe and his straw building materials, which are solving people's housing problems." In line with the great strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and technology.
The book "Today's Odd Man Zhou Xinghe" has been collected in the Chinese Contemporary Writers Book Collection, Beijing Chinese Writers Book Collection, Beijing Library, Beijing University of Foreign Chinese Library, Hunan University Library, Chongqing Library, Jiangjin Library, Jiangjin Nie Shuai Exhibition Hall, Chongqing Yuzhou University Library, Chongqing University of Technology Library, Chongqing University Library, Chongqing College of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Normal University Library, Chengdu Branch Library of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing Bayu Cultural Hall, China Third Line Construction History Exhibition Hall, Chengdu Dayi Third Line Construction Exhibition Hall, Jiangjin Cultural and Creative Center, Jiangjin Chen Duxiu's Former Residence, Jiangjin Middle School Library, Jiangjin Shangrong School Library, Sichuan Writers Book Collection, Bashu Cultural Museum...