What else can we do before the ocean is “captive”

In 1970, the first "Earth Day" was born.

In the same year, "Apollo 13" successfully launched into space with the blessings of all mankind. However, the explosion of the oxygen tank severely damaged the spacecraft. The attention has been brought back to the surface.

That is, since then, driven by "Earth Day", we have paid more attention to the relationship between man and nature: if mankind loses the only earth, what is the point of rushing to space.

Tomorrow is April 22, which is also the 54th "Earth Day". Not long ago, we went to Sanya, Hainan together with the Planetary Research Institute and OPPO, and went through the crowds to see the surface that is submerged by the ocean and we are not so familiar with. world.

Going to see the sea, it may change in the future

In Hainan in early April, the sun is shining and fading.

The local guide told us that the peak season in Hainan is over now, but we took the boarding boat on Wuzhizhou Island early on Friday morning and found that there were no empty seats. I was still thinking about what the guide said, but my eyes had already been blurred by the blue sea. attracted.

The blue of the sea is even more blue than the sky at this time, and I think it should not lose to the blue of the sky in the clear sky.

And we landed on the island today, just to dive into this sea.

Here is the coral restoration base of the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. We came here expecting to see the coral garden, but the reality is different from what we imagined.

And in order to record this rare journey, we made enough filming preparations in advance…but not much.

In the past, if we encountered the task of underwater shooting, we usually brought a professional sports camera, and then brought a special waterproof case for the camera, and had a special person to operate it. The difficulty of underwater shooting is simply unparalleled compared with conventional photography. The difference between cloud and mud, but this time we only brought one mobile phone: OPPO Find X6 Pro, the equipment "reduced configuration", and my mobility under water is a bit more.

I want to see the sea, and I also want to take pictures of the underwater world.

Before going into the water, I also put a waterproof case on the phone. Although most of the flagship phones on the market have achieved the IP68 protection level, waterproof does not mean seawater resistance. In order to shoot smoothly, safety is still the first priority.

At 10:30 in the morning, my two companions, wearing scuba equipment, slowly dived into the protected sea area of ​​the Institute of Oceanography under the leadership of a "one-on-one" coach.

Swimming at the bottom of the water, the only sound that reaches people's ears is the sound of bubbles when breathing. The surroundings are quiet, and people's attention is focused on the scenery in front of them.

Underwater scenery is different from land, because the sea water is blue-green, so the world we see is also blue, and so is what the camera sees.

To be honest, I can't see the details of the surrounding environment and creatures clearly in the sea, but thanks to the low-light performance of Find X6 Pro, it has become my "eyes".

By pressing the shutter, you can take a clear, delicate and tolerant picture. With a little processing, we can restore the original color of the underwater world.

The deeper you go, the more novel the fish, but there are also many dead corals.

chasing coral

In the face of coral, some people say it is a plant, while others say it is an animal. To some extent, it is both.

Coral reefs are known as "tropical rainforests in the ocean", and they only account for 0.2% of the earth's ocean area, but this 0.2% area of ​​coral reefs is the habitat of nearly 1/3 of marine fish.

It plays an extremely important role in the global carbon cycle.

The coral itself is a group of countless coral polyps, and the coral polyps have a symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae: zooxanthellae provide 95% of photosynthesis products (sugars, amino acids, oxygen) to The coral host, and the latter receives this "favor" and provides metabolites such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and phosphorus to the zooxanthellae as nutrients.

They are intimate and inseparable from each other, or inseparable from each other.

In 2017, Netflix, which was on fire at the time, released a documentary called "Chasing Coral". The title of the film is thought-provoking: Coral has no legs, so why use such a strong verb as "chase" as the title?

We are not chasing the coral itself, but fighting against time and chasing the life of the coral.

In recent years, global warming has had a serious impact on the ecology of coral reefs, which are extremely picky about the environment: massive emissions of greenhouse gases, and the overexploitation of marine resources by humans have led to ocean acidification and rising water temperatures, making nearly 1/3 of the world's reef-building corals Endangered, with coral bleaching being the most obvious negative impact.

The external environment of corals is becoming increasingly harsh, forcing zooxanthellae to be excreted from the coral polyps, the original harmonious symbiotic relationship is broken, and corals are bleached and turned into "white bones".

The carbon sink function of corals no longer exists, an important part of the earth's carbon cycle is broken, global warming is further aggravated, and the ecological plight of the ocean is even worse.

There is another important but easily overlooked impact behind coral bleaching: fish schools living on coral reefs will gradually die out like jaguars and manatees that have lost the Amazon rainforest.

Another human factor affecting ocean health is plastic, and more precisely marine plastic waste.

Dr. Jessica Reichert of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology has published many papers on the impact of microplastics on reef-building corals. After microplastics enter the ocean, some of them will be absorbed and deposited by corals. According to data, there may be as many as 20,000 plastics per year. Tons of microplastics are stored in coral skeletons. Such a huge amount still only accounts for 3% of the total amount of plastic discharged into the ocean every year. Needless to say, everyone should be able to see that I use "only" here The word is more to express a kind of helplessness.

Microplastics are ingested by corals, but corals cannot decompose plastics on their own, so corals that eat plastics will eventually bleach or tissue necrosis due to starvation.

The June issue of National Geographic Magazine in 2018, the content of this issue is very special, the cover is as follows, there are icebergs above the sea, and plastic bags we often use at the bottom.

Different from the previous content, in this issue of "National Geographic Magazine", there are no magnificent earth scenery, no comforting humanistic stories, no peculiar animals and plants, only shocking photos of mother earth being polluted .

The earth is beautiful, but if humans continue to spoil the earth, the beauty will cease to exist.

To put it too big, irresponsible human beings will make the earth on which they live no longer pure; to say it too small, "National Geographic" will not be able to take good-looking scenery in the future.

The story always has an ending, either HE or BE, the ending of the coral group depends largely on every decision you and I make every day.

Try my best to plant a coral in the sea

In the sea, swim slowly.

The day before we officially dived into the bottom of the sea, the coach taught us some basic scuba skills and gestures, and at the same time explained the above sentence to us, so as to prevent us from stepping on the native coral too much after entering the water, which is not worth the candle.

Fortunately, everything went well. Accompanied by the coach, we successfully "swimmed" to the nursery to plant a few staghorn corals. This is the most common coral species, but even though it is common, it is listed as near-threatened by the IUCN Red List Species (NT, Near Threatened).

Use bandages to "plant" corals on a nursery. In an environment where the water temperature, ocean currents, and microorganisms are all suitable, these short branches of corals will re-grow. After three or two years of cultivation, they will be transplanted to suitable sea areas when the time is right, and wait. Good news.

One of the guardians of this nursery, Zhang Yuyang, an associate researcher at the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, chose to "plant coral" as his lifelong career. First, he grew up by the sea and loves water; Xisha has witnessed severe coral degradation, and he has the experience of studying corals in Australia. By chance, he became the guardian of this ocean.

Although it is human intervention, it actually depends on the sky.

Basically, this is the epitome of Zhang Yuyang's career. He has seen corals growing gratifyingly, such as Dongluo Island, where people are at the right time and place;

He still persisted, firmly believing that what he planted was not only coral, but also hope for the future.

The coral I transplanted does not simply bring him the feeling of growing up, but the coral grows through its own strength, and I just help him to give him a better chance.

After hearing the story of Zhang Yuyang, I think we should not disappoint their efforts, not only for corals, but also for human beings. It is time for us to make a change.

What big companies and small individuals can do to save corals

The OPPO Find X6 Pro that accompanied me into the sea this time has begun to "throw away" almost all the plastic packaging inside the box, and instead use recycled fiber materials to reduce the consumption of raw materials, and at the same time realize that the packaging is 100% naturally degradable. OPPO envisages one of the steps in the low-carbon development path, and this step has been solidified so far.

Smart cloud data centers deploy submerged liquid-cooled GPU clusters, self-built data centers use 100% clean energy, establish a complete product recycling system, and install rooftop photovoltaics in industrial parks. These carbon-neutral projects are also being promoted in an orderly manner.

Since the OPPO Smart Cloud (Greater Bay Area) data center was put into use in 2022, it has used a total of 6.178 gigawatt hours of green electricity, which is equivalent to reducing 3,600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions to the earth. At the same time, the data center recycles rainwater for cooling system recycling, helping the center save about 30,000 tons of water resources every year.

OPPO envisages reaching its carbon peak in 2024. When it reaches the peak, it will "go downhill" after that, but the "downhill road" referred to here has a positive impact. OPPO's ultimate goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 , in the way of "direct emission reduction is prior to elimination, and elimination is prior to offsetting", doing what a good and large company should do.

OPPO lives up to the name of "Green Factory".

However, as human beings, we are small individuals, and we cannot achieve huge goals like a big factory, so let's start with small things.

Do not buy handicrafts made of coral skeletons, replace chemical sunscreens with physical sunscreens, do not destroy coral reefs growing on the seabed and exposed ashore, waste less paper, turn up the air conditioner by one degree, bring your own cups to buy coffee, and choose lower-carbon travel Way.

These things that each of us can do can help Mother Earth "rejuvenate".

Before the ocean was "captive", we took a look in the sea.

And I hope that our descendants can still see the beautiful blue world in the future.

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