Homo sapiens.

Chapter 541 Frozen Planet
Suez Canal.

To be precise, it is the first Suez Canal, because there are currently two Suez Canals.

The Second Suez Canal is the one dug independently by Homo Sapiens, while the First Suez Canal is the old canal.

Recently, the First Suez Canal has stopped shipping services. There are many reasons for the suspension of shipping services.

The relationship between Homo sapiens and the free world is not good. In order to avoid the Suez Canal controlled by Homo sapiens, the free world is trying to bypass the Suez Canal.

For example, investing in the construction of the Mediterranean-Dead Sea-Red Sea Canal, the construction of land oil and gas pipelines in West Asia, the construction of the Eurasian Railway, or the use of Arctic routes and North Pacific routes.

After various plans, the shipping volume of the Suez Canal declined rapidly, leaving only Homo Sapiens and some marginal world ships passing through the Suez Canal.

As for the First Suez Canal, which has aging facilities and relatively low standards, there are not many ships passing through it at all, and it is only used as a supplement and backup channel for the Second Suez Canal.

After all, the channel depth of the first Suez Canal is only 22.5 meters, and the width is not enough. The channel of more than 100 kilometers needs 14 to 16 hours of navigation time.

The second Suez Canal newly built by Homo Sapiens has a single-lane channel width of 860-900 meters and an average depth of 35 meters, which is enough to navigate a 50-ton giant ship.

More importantly, the navigation time only takes 7-8 hours.

Therefore, with the opening of the Second Suez Canal, the First Suez Canal was naturally left out.

However, this is not the main reason for the recent closure of the First Suez Canal.

The main reason Homo sapiens stopped using the First Suez Canal was due to the drop in sea level.

As the ice sheets of Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean gradually expand, and plateau alpine glaciers around the world also begin to develop again, more and more water resources are fixed in the ice sheets and ice sheets.

This caused the sea level to begin to drop. According to current data, the sea level will drop by about 12 centimeters per month on average.

At this time, the global sea level has dropped by about 1.8 meters.

If the trend of global cooling cannot be reversed, the global sea level will drop by an average of 1.4 to 1.5 meters per year in the future until it reaches the peak of the ice age.

According to previous geological historical data, under normal circumstances, the global sea level during the peak period of the ice age will be about 2020 to 90 meters lower than the sea level in 100.

Of course, this is generally the case. In some extreme cases, the sea level may drop by 200 meters.

According to this situation, it has just entered the ice age, and it is estimated that it will take about 50 years to develop into the full ice age.

Moreover, the development of ice sheets and glaciers during the ice age has a characteristic, that is, it is relatively rapid in the early stage, and it will become slower and slower in the later stage.

It is conservatively estimated that it may take about 100 years for this ice age to develop to its full height.

Therefore, the depth of the First Suez Canal at this time is only 20.7 meters, and it is still declining. This depth is not conducive to navigation.

In addition, there were not many transport ships going through this canal, so the company directly deactivated the First Suez Canal with a swipe of the pen and upgraded the old canal.

In fact, this is also a problem that all major waterways around the world will have to face in the future, especially waterways with an average water depth of less than 120 meters. As the world becomes colder, sea levels will gradually decrease, and these waterways will be difficult to use.

For example, the Black Sea Strait controlled by Ottoman in name, a large part of the channel depth of this strait is less than 120 meters.

Even the two Central American canals that use ship locks must find a way to re-adjust the channel, and even add several ship locks before they can barely navigate.

Similarly, the Strait of Malacca and the Kra Canal will also encounter this problem.

Fortunately, the Homo sapiens company's canal excavation technology is very powerful, and can continue to deepen the canal as the sea level drops, ensuring the normal navigation of the canal.

This is also the reason why the free world gave up digging the Mediterranean-Dead Sea-Red Sea canal, because now that it has been dug, the sea level will continue to drop in the future, and whether it can be navigated stably has become an uncertain thing.

In addition, the Mediterranean-Dead Sea-Red Sea Canal has another fatal weakness, which is another outlet of the Red Sea-the Strait of Main.

The depth of some sea areas in the Main Strait is also less than 120 meters, which means that the Red Sea will become a closed saltwater lake in the future.

Even if the free world desperately deepens the Mediterranean Sea-Dead Sea-Red Sea Canal, when the Strait of Main becomes land, there will still be no way to pass through the Red Sea.

As for whether Homo sapiens will dig the Main Canal.

The answer is of course yes.

But the Main Canal dug by Homo sapiens is not unnavigable for ships in the free world.

Therefore, the free world has to re-evaluate the strategic value of the Mediterranean-Dead Sea-Red Sea Canal. If you have this spare time, it is better to invest in the expansion of the Eurasian Railway.

Now the free world really needs to upgrade and transform the Eurasian Railway and expand the cargo transportation volume of the Eurasian Railway.

After all, the Arctic route that Lucia had placed high hopes on before is also abolished now, and the Arctic Ocean is freezing longer and longer.

According to the current trend, the Bering Strait can be completely covered by ice sheets. After becoming a semi-permanent ice sheet, the Arctic route will directly lose the possibility of navigation.

In the absence of a solution, the four major forces can only find a way to use railways and roads instead.

But as September passed quietly.

The situation around the world is further clarified.

The Europa Commonwealth and Lucia, which suffered from extreme weather and severely reduced agricultural production, have entered the cold winter ahead of schedule.

Especially in the northern part of Northern Europe, it was covered with ice and snow as early as the end of August. In October, the entire region around the Baltic Sea was covered with heavy snow.

The Arctic ice sheet expands a little bit southward from the northern part of northern Europe, although for a while, many ice sheets will not become semi-permanent, only seasonal ice sheets.

But the problem is that this year's North Atlantic warm current shows no signs of returning to normal. Without the warm water vapor of the North Atlantic warm current, the temperate oceanic climate in Western Europe has become a temperate continental climate, and even some areas with relatively high latitudes have become frigid. climate.

Berlin.

The first blizzard in autumn covered the whole city with a layer of snow.

However, this kind of scenery has a trace of cruelty.

In Berlin, which has quickly entered winter mode, many people have to turn on the heating in advance.

America's half-sold and half-gifted genetically modified corn is made into feed, alcohol, and high-fructose syrup, which are supplied to farmers and agricultural companies.

Coupled with the low-priced natural gas purchased from Lucia, the production costs of many Europa companies have barely been lowered.

There are also cheap light industrial products from Seris that come over the Eurasian Railway, which also alleviates the problem of insufficient supply in the local market.

The Europa Consortium has also reluctantly increased subsidies for some products.

This barely suppressed the spread of the wave of bankruptcy and once again stabilized internal prices.

However, the early cooling of the northern hemisphere still makes Europa and Lucia feel very difficult.

In order to deal with the frequent extreme weather and the problem of global cooling, the major forces have held frequent small meetings recently.

Human beings are still too fragile in the face of the mighty power of nature.

Except for the Homo sapiens company entrenched in the equatorial region, other forces feel the pressure.

Homo sapiens, while taking advantage of this heaven-sent opportunity, vigorously recruits natural persons, and at the same time is rapidly building the equatorial stratosphere railway.

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(End of this chapter)