Homo sapiens.

Chapter 546 Dominoes Fall
As the Balkan region with a relatively low latitude of Europa, it is snowing heavily at this time, let alone the northern European region with a very high latitude.

The Kingdom of Tranquility in Northern Europe.

The capital is Stockholm.

The streets and alleys are covered with silver, but behind this beautiful scenery, there is a very terrible danger.

In the past, the winter here was not cold. Even if the latitude of Stockholm is around 59 degrees north latitude, the winter is still not cold.

But this year has not yet entered winter, and in autumn alone, the temperature has dropped to between minus 15 degrees and minus 30 degrees.

Without the natural heating system of the North Atlantic warm current, the whole of Northern Europe is basically equivalent to Xianbelia, after all, the latitudes of the two are similar.

The headquarters of White Pine is in Stockholm.

The company's CEO, Bretten, looked at the report in his hand with a very ugly face.

Yeke, the business manager on the side, explained helplessly: "President Bretton, the large-scale decline in business this year is not our fault, but the weather has had too much impact."

"What did the insurance company say?"

Taylor, the vice president in charge of this work, said very angrily: "They refused to pay, saying that in the insurance clause, the stipulated winter is from November to February of the following year, these **** bastards!"

Brendan was equally furious, but what's the use of being angry now.

These financial companies are all vampires. When fooling people to buy financial products, they often talk about hype and hype, but when they encounter problems, they try their best to find excuses and exploit loopholes, and they just don’t pay.

Now even if Baisong Company sued the other party to the court, the other party can delay the time, not to mention that the legal affairs of these financial vampires are also very powerful.

Britton had a terrible headache: "We must find a way, otherwise we can only lay off employees and sell assets on a large scale."

"But..." Jake hesitated to speak.

What else can they do now? The core business of their White Pine Company is logging, wood processing, furniture, and papermaking.

It seems that the industry is not affected much by the weather.

In fact, many people overlook an important issue, that is, modern industry is no longer the small workshop of the past, and industry needs electricity and heat.

The forest farm of the White Pine Company can supply wood, but at this time the hydropower station in the Kingdom of Anning has stopped operating.

In previous years, autumn in the Kingdom of Anning was the peak period for hydropower generation. However, as soon as autumn entered this year, large areas of rivers and lakes froze up, and hydropower generation was most afraid of freezing.

In contrast, 45% of Anning Kingdom's electricity comes from hydropower, and 45% comes from nuclear power. The proportion of other electricity sources is relatively small.

The hydropower of Anning Kingdom can generate about 70 to 75 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year. They are also one of the electricity exporting countries in the Europa region, and they compete with France all the year round.

However, this year, the terrifying blizzard directly dealt a blow to the Anning Kingdom.

37% of the hydropower stations have completely shut down, 41% of the hydropower stations have less than half of the power generation of the same period in previous years, and the remaining 22% can barely maintain [-]% to [-]% of the power generation.

Don't talk about exporting electricity now, the internal electricity is not enough.

The chain reaction brought about by the ultra-low temperature has further increased the electricity consumption of enterprises and residents. After all, factories need heating, and residents also need heating in their homes.

On the one hand, the power generation has dropped by about 20%, and on the other hand, the demand has skyrocketed. Under the attack of both sides, the power supply of Anning Kingdom has not only suffered a serious shortage, but also experienced a skyrocketing price.

The paper mill of White Pine Company needs water, and it is hot water, otherwise the equipment will freeze and the pulp will not be able to operate. Although there are emergency diesel generator sets, the power required by the factory is still too high.

Paper companies in Anning Kingdom, like Baisong Company, are facing the problem of insufficient power supply.

As for the addition of nuclear power plants, the largest power company in the Kingdom of Anning, the Waterfall Group, is indeed planning to build five new nuclear reactors to fill the gap in future hydropower.

The problem is, building a nuclear power plant takes time!

Due to population and market reasons, European and American industries have a very fragmented industrial chain. This decentralized industrial chain has many problems, such as coordination and transportation.

The Kingdom of Anning does not have the ability to independently build nuclear power plants. They must cooperate with companies in France, Germany, and America.

The characteristic of European and American companies is that they are slow in efficiency, which can be called "slow work and meticulous work" at a good level, or "slow work and meticulous work" at a bad level.

The five nuclear reactors planned by the Waterfall Group are still in the paper design stage at this time, and even the parts have not been produced.

Apparently this is far from being able to quench thirst.

For other power generation systems, solar and wind power generation depend on the weather, while natural gas and coal power generation. Anning Kingdom itself does not have abundant natural gas and coal resources.

And building a new power generation system also takes time.

Facing the power shortage, Anning Kingdom had to call on residents to reduce electricity consumption. For example, villas with a few hundred square meters used to be heated 24 hours a day.

In fact, without the official call from the Kingdom of Peace, the people could no longer bear the high electricity bills.

Many residents only supply energy in their bedrooms, and dare not turn on the heating 24 hours a day.

In the past month, their family used thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity, but now they save a little, and only use about 500 kilowatt-hours.

A blessing in disguise, Serris's electric blankets and thermal sleeping bags are selling well.

There is no 24-hour heating in the whole house, and many people cursed and even went to Stockholm to make trouble. Obviously, this kind of gap is not something everyone can bear.

The pampered Nordic people, especially the new generation who have not had a hard life, do not accept this low-quality life at all.

For example, a certain environmental protection little princess who gained three laps of weight has been exported crazily on the streets of Stockholm.

However, these street artists did not realize how serious the deteriorating weather in the Nordic region was at this time.

If it's just a world of ice and snow, then it's not a big problem. If it's a big deal, it's an early winter.

But as time went by, another situation emerged.

The seasonal ice sheet goes all the way south from the northern part of the Scandinavian peninsula. Without the neutralization of the North Atlantic warm current, the whistling north wind, like a long knife, swept across northern Europe and reached Western and Central Europe.

Galaxy 2, February 11nd.

The seasonal ice sheet pushes southward from the Perai Sea in the east of the Kingdom of Anning, freezing the Gulf of Bothnia, the Selkai Sea, and then entering the core waters of the Baltic Sea.

It's the winter solstice in December.

The entire Baltic Sea was frozen, and the ice thickness in the northern sea area reached 3 to 4 meters.

In the central sea area near Stockholm, the thickness of the ice layer is also about 1 to 2 meters.

This situation directly caused the Baltic Sea to lose its normal shipping value. Even if Lucia transferred a nuclear-powered icebreaker from the North Pole, there was still no way to guarantee the Baltic Sea's waterway.

The ice on the Baltic Sea has cut off the maritime traffic in Northern Europe and Western Europe, which has put the Nordic region, which needs to purchase a lot of supplies, into a dilemma where money can't buy things.

And because of the impact of the snowstorm, aircraft transportation has also been seriously affected.

At the same time, there is also a crisis in the North Sea, that is, icebergs.

Icebergs floating down from the Arctic Ocean have begun to appear in the North Sea, which has seriously affected the safety of shipping in the North Sea.

This winter solstice, the entire middle and high latitudes of the northern hemisphere are covered in white, and both seasonal and semi-permanent ice sheets are expanding southward.

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(End of this chapter)