Nuke Miko: Chronicles of America

Uh, if it’s priced in U.S. dollars, I’ve made a lot of money, but it’s all fake, because it takes time to collect money—do you know how much the U.S. dollar’s ​​exchange rate has fallen in the past month or so?If converted into RMB, my company not only made no profit in the US market last month, but also lost money! "

Chapter 191: California's severe drought and difficult rice farming

After exchanging pleasantries for a few more words, Akiyama Megumi ended the video communication with Chen Qiuhan, and then searched for the latest exchange rate on his mobile phone.

Then, she discovered that since the "Corona" epidemic broke out and the U.S. stock market melted down one after another in March, the exchange rates of major currencies around the world have been fluctuating violently.After the Los Angeles earthquake and the Seattle chaos broke out together, the exchange rate of the US dollar fell even more.

At present, the ratio of the dollar to the renminbi has fallen to one to four.

And a month ago, the U.S. dollar was still one to six point five against the yuan...

It's no wonder that Chen Qiuhan's face is still so ugly after selling so many ghost notes and paper figurines in the United States: I dare say the more you sell, the more you lose!

Considering that the United States is still "quantitative easing" at a rate of one trillion dollars per week, it is frantically running nuclear-powered money printing machines; at the same time, it is also preparing to send money to appease the people, declaring that it will give every citizen of the United States, and then count A special relief payment of $[-] per person...

It is conceivable that in the next few months, the inflation rate in this world will probably exceed that of the underworld!

For those who are engaged in Sino-US trade, if they sell goods from China to the US to earn US dollars, it is true that their earnings have not fallen fast!

In addition, the ratio of the dollar to the euro has also fallen to two to one, that is, two dollars equal one euro.

Even Russian rubles and Indian rupees are skyrocketing against dollars, in short, dollar bills are becoming less and less valuable!

But what Akiyama Hui couldn't understand was that the exchange rate of the yen against the dollar was plummeting, and it had fallen to the level where one dollar could be exchanged for 150 yen.

As for the exchange rate of the Japanese yen against other currencies, it has fallen almost unbearably...

As a result, the Japanese economy has been in a slump, and the import and export deficit has been running for several months, and the deficit is still getting bigger and bigger.

For Japan, which lacks local resources and relies on "processing of supplied materials" for its manufacturing industry, this is nothing short of a doomsday catastrophe.

what on earth is it?

In recent Japan, there has been no revival of spiritual energy, descending of the gods, ghosts of the night, and no other natural and man-made disasters except the plague that is common all over the world-and the death rate of the plague is at least much lower than that of the United States, let alone Start the nuclear-powered money printing machine, print yen and engage in quantitative easing...

At most, it's just a few scandals of corporate fraud, and the person in charge has come out to bow and apologize, what else do you want?

Nowadays, who doesn't know that Japanese companies are all "fake fairy" and "craftsman spirit" temperament?

Do we have to force them to cut seppuku?But can the exchange rate be raised by cutting the abdomen?The economy is getting better?

What's more, the Japanese government has overcome all difficulties this time and insisted on hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo as scheduled this year.

——Instead of being the same as the plane before Megumi Akiyama crossed over, I chose to postpone it for one year and hold the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2020. It will be recorded in the history books, which is even worse than "there are five of the four great kings" It's nondescript, confusing and confusing.

Today, weird balloons with human heads have floated over Tokyo, and giant ancient witchcraft dolls have also been erected in Hibiya Park. Energy-saving, environmentally friendly and pollution-free cardboard bed...

No matter how you look at it, the Olympic Games should have a certain boost to the Japanese economy and give investors some confidence.

But these days, the exchange rate of the yen is still falling like a dam bursting, falling much faster than the dollar...

what the hell is it?Could it be that there is an "invisible syringe" that is crazily drawing blood from the Japanese economy?

Unable to figure it out, Akiyama Hui simply didn't bother to think about it, no longer entangled in the exchange rate issue, but continued to watch other news columns on the mobile phone.

Then I discovered that it is not only the Northwest states that are suffering from heat waves, but the temperature in the entire United States is terribly hot.

In addition to the "heat dome" centered on Washington State on the west coast, New York and Boston on the east coast of the United States are also being hit by heat waves.

Although it is not as outrageous as fifty degrees Celsius in Canada, the highest temperature in New York has reached 42 degrees Celsius during the day, and the lowest temperature at night is 35 degrees Celsius, and it has lasted for more than half a month... This is heavy snow every winter Locked down New York!

Because the old power system cannot withstand such a long-term high temperature test, New York has now had to periodically cut off power in districts to prevent tripping.

The weather is so hot, the prices in the market are soaring, and the employment is sluggish. The life of ordinary people is difficult, and they are naturally irritable.

In Boston during the heat wave, first a two-year-old shot and killed his father, and then a centenarian headshot his unfilial daughter. Vicious cases broke out frequently.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, the influx of refugees from the Los Angeles earthquake also caused violent conflicts between outsiders and locals.

President Golden Retriever has been ordering troops to severely suppress it, but the Democratic Party is doing everything possible to hold back, making it difficult for the Pentagon.

Anyway, there wasn't much business in the casino during the epidemic, so let's put it on hold for a while.

The most serious incident has just happened in New York, the largest city in the United States and the economic heart of the East Coast of the United States.

Although there are no zombies running around the streets like Los Angeles, the "Corona" epidemic in New York is also extremely serious.

Ever since the government lifted the lockdown of the city, gave up on epidemic prevention, and lay down like a salted fish.Since the beginning of June, the daily number of people dying from the COVID-19 virus in New York has remained above 5000. In the most terrifying days, there have been tragedies of "[-] deaths a day".

Not only New York's medical system was broken down, but even New York's funeral system was broken down.

Today, the dead in New York can no longer hold a decent funeral, so they can only dig a big pit on a nearby island and throw the corpses into it.

To make matters worse, due to the soaring prices recently, many poor people have joined the ranks of crimes, robbing supermarkets for zero yuan purchases and spreading the virus.

As a result, the New York police has also become the hardest hit area of ​​the epidemic. At present, more than half of the staff is short, and they are dissatisfied with recruiting people every day, unable to maintain law and order in the city.

The mayor scolded every day in TV interviews, blaming citizens for not dying at home when they were sick, but running around to cause trouble for the country.

As a result, some New Yorkers who shouldn’t have gone home went home—because the request to “triple the wages during the epidemic and increase wages at any time according to the price index” was rejected, and the dock workers in New York refused to continue working hard. Live, a general strike has just been announced: the container terminals in New York Harbor are shut down!

This is great. Three of the five largest container ports in the United States (Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York) have collapsed in one go. Can the economy not collapse?

Then, on the one hand, there is excessive currency issuance, and the amount of currency on the market has increased sharply; on the other hand, there is a shortage of commodities, and people are rushing to buy them...

If this price can be suppressed, it will be called hell!

In short, in this midsummer of high temperature and heat wave, accompanied by the skyrocketing prices along with the temperature, the entire American people are restless and restless.

As Megumi Akiyama traveled all the way south by car, passing through Oregon and entering California, the roadside scenery gradually became empty, the towering old trees became less and less, and the vegetation became sparse and dwarfed, but the temperature dropped instead. It seemed that the convoy had already escaped Coverage of the "hot dome".

However, when the convoy finally arrived at the rice-producing area on the outskirts of Sacramento—that is, the predetermined address of the "California Inari Shrine", the little witch Akiyama Hui suddenly felt an unknown fire gushing out of her chest, and the whole person seemed to have returned to "California Inari Shrine". In the natural sauna room of the "Hot Dome", the blood surged all over his body, his face was as red as a steamed lobster, and he was about to explode with anger.

"...This is... the largest rice farm in California? But where is the rice? Tell me!"

Looking at the dry land with no gleam of water around, Akiyama Hui's forehead was throbbing with blue veins. He pointed at the drought-resistant crops around him, which were obviously not rice, and roared angrily: "...why didn't I see even a single rice? Who will come?" Tell me, where is there rice in this place?"

"...Sorry, miss, there is a drought in California this year... No, not only this year, California has been in drought for ten years!"

The farmer accompanied Xinxin and said, "...But this year's drought is particularly severe, we have to switch to soybeans and corn..."

Chapter 192: California's severe drought and difficult rice farming

The strong sunshine of California's midsummer makes the sky look blue and bright, and it is spotlessly clean.

However, standing in the most important rice-growing area of ​​California, in a large rice farm in the Sacramento River Valley near the capital Sacramento, in the bright California sunshine, the little witch Megumi Akiyama, who serves the Inari God, was confuse in her heart. There was a thick layer of haze.

Because, in her field of vision, neither "water" nor "rice" was seen!

—— Domesticated rice, that is, artificially cultivated rice, is quite unique and different from other cultivated crops in the world.

Ecologically speaking, rice is the only wetland plant selected and domesticated by humans as a staple food.

In addition to rice, whether it is millet and millet domesticated in the Yellow River Basin of China, barley and wheat originating in West Asia, maize originating in Central America, quinoa and potatoes originating in the Andes of South America, the wild ancestors of these crops all survived in the dry land , the fields where they are planted are dry fields.

However, the wild ancestors of the rice domesticated by the Chinese ancestors in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River were typical aquatic herbaceous plants that grew in ponds and swamps.

This is unique in the whole world, and there is no second similar example. Compared with other dryland crops, it seems out of place.

Therefore, in the United States, where wheat and corn are the staple foods, rice has always been an out-and-out marginalized "small crop".

There are 1800 million acres of rice planted in the United States, but there are only more than 1 rice farmers, which is very small.

However, due to its small consumption, the United States was actually the second largest rice exporter in the world, exporting 400 million tons of rice every year, second only to Thailand.

In other words, with the blessing of modern high technology, the rice farming in the United States still has a certain scale.

——A single American farmer can plant thousands of acres of rice fields by means of aircraft seeding, drone patrols, and remote-controlled sprinkler irrigation.

Among them, because of its proximity to the Pacific Ocean and the large number of Asian immigrants, California's rice planting area once accounted for 25% of the entire United States.

But the problem is that the prefix of this data is "once"! !

——The reason why rice is called "water" rice is because it requires a lot of water resources, as well as enough light and heat to grow it.

And California...well, it's not a place as humid and rainy as Jiangnan in China, and the water supply is actually quite tight.

Just look at the map and you will know that as long as you cross the coastline of California and go a little deeper inland, you will be full of deserts and mountains, and the drought is terribly dry.

The southwest of California is the Mojave Desert, and the northeast is the Nevada Desert. Every year, the Foehn blows from the Sierra Nevada to the west, and the locals call it the "big devil wind".

——The wind is extremely dry and scorching hot, which can instantly raise the local temperature by 50 to [-] degrees Celsius, or even more than [-] degrees, for several hours or even a day.Wherever the foehn blows, the forest is turned into dry wood, and wherever the foehn blows, the fire will burn there.

Christianity believes that the devil lives in Hell, which smells like sulfur, so the Foehn, which is surrounded by flames, is naturally the great devil's wind.

Some people always mistakenly think that the environment and climate of California should be similar to that of southern France - after all, California produces vineyards and red wine just like France.But in fact, the place with the climate most similar to California is actually North Africa!Across the mountains is the great desert!

If you compare the climate of Algeria and Morocco with that of California, it is basically the same.

All in all, from the Rocky Mountains of the United States to the west, all the way to the Pacific coast, there are basically vast desert Gobi, salt marshes, and volcanic lava areas.The scenery of the entire western United States is really as desolate and magnificent as those photographed in western films, with cliffs and sandstone clusters everywhere. Next to the road are jagged canyons with no grass and endless wild deserts, full of sandstones and red rocks.

Only in the narrow strip along the Pacific Ocean, the climate is not so dry and harsh, and there are some relatively extensive forests and grasslands.

Even the Central Valley of California, which is rich in fruits and vegetables and known as the "American Salad Plate"—that is, the land around the capital Sacramento—was a nearly deserted livestock farm with barren land before it was developed by white immigrants. , not suitable for cultivation.

So, how did the Central Valley, which was originally as dry as a grassland, be transformed into a "fruit basket in the desert"?

Naturally, relying on the United States of America, which was still an "infrastructure madman" back then, it took a hundred years to build large-scale construction projects in California, diligently digging canals, repairing canals, and digging tunnels to attract water from the snowmelt in the mountains... Finally, the Central Valley was transformed from half to half. The desert state has become the largest vegetable and fruit producing area in the United States, contributing 1/3 of the agricultural and vegetable products in the United States, rich in watermelons, asparagus, beets, pears, almonds, grapes and so on.Especially the world's largest variety of tomatoes - the Central Valley has the world's largest supplier of canned tomatoes...

It is the abundance of agricultural products in the Central Valley that allows California to lead the trend of organic and healthy eating in the United States.

And in the Sacramento River Basin, where the water source is the most abundant in the valley, a large area of ​​paddy fields was also opened up, and rice from Asia was planted.

But even so, California's climate is too dry for rice cultivation, which requires large paddy fields.

Even if we try our best to attract enough water sources, there is still a problem of too much evaporation, which is really unsolvable.

——Forcibly planting rice in an arid semi-desert environment, so that the paddy fields are constantly subjected to super high evaporation, how much water is required!

More importantly, compared with fruit and vegetable plantations and wine-making vineyards, the profits of American farmers growing rice in California are too low, and sometimes they still lose money.

——Because in the United States, California's rice planting industry has a stronger competitor!

On the Great Plains to the east of the Rocky Mountains, there is a broad Mississippi River. The abundance of water and the humidity of the environment are incomparable to such a small river in California.The geographical environment of the middle and lower reaches of the Mississippi River is also more similar to the birthplace of rice - even the latitude is similar.

Thus, California's few rice paddies have been dwarfed since rice farming developed in the Mississippi Valley.

With no location advantage at all, why would California waste limited fresh water to grow unprofitable rice?

Wouldn't it be more profitable to grow fruits and vegetables instead?Or, in order to save water, you can switch to drought-tolerant crops!

"...Since the rice planting industry developed in Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, there have been fewer and fewer rice fields in California. Everyone has grown fruits, vegetables, and Flowers, picked and delivered directly to restaurants in San Francisco."

The farmer explained to the little witch Akiyama Hui why he no longer grows rice, "...my family's farm also continued to grow rice because the sunk cost was too high for 60 years. In fact, every year Serious losses, all relying on various subsidies to operate in a bleak manner.

But this year, first of all, the government has financial difficulties and has cut agricultural subsidies; secondly, the drought is so severe that it cannot afford to irrigate the paddy fields! "

He lamented, "...Although there have been droughts in the past ten years, this year's drought is particularly severe. From New Year to now, Sacramento has not had a single rain for half a year! All the reservoirs in California are bottoming out one by one, where Can we still waste fresh water to grow unprofitable rice?

Not only my family's farm, but the rice fields in the whole of California have basically chosen to fall fallow or replanted with drought-tolerant crops this year. Even the farms that barely planted rice may now have no harvest due to lack of water—hundreds of years I have never encountered such a dry weather before! "

"...Ten years of drought? Is California's drought that bad? Why haven't I heard about it on the international news?"

Knowing that a drought that has lasted ten years has broken out in California, the little witch Megumi Akiyama, who was still angry and depressed, couldn't help but be surprised.

"...It's all true. For several years, California has restricted residents from watering their lawns, and there are companies that specialize in green painting services for dry lawns. Moreover, California's drought, in the West The states are far from the worst."

Megumi Akiyama's current manager, Miss Freya, a former assistant to the mayor of Los Angeles, interjected, "... Nevada, Arizona and Mexico. The severe drought that has never happened in a millennium has lasted for 20 years! The last time such a drought occurred was the When the Mayan civilization perished..."

PS: Recently, "Menghualu" starring Liu Tianxian became popular. As a result, the tourism department here in Hangzhou is a lot of hype, and the stills of "Menghualu" are used everywhere for publicity.

This, although both are the imperial capitals of the Song Dynasty, one is Bianjing and the other is Lin'an. The "Song Yun" in Hangzhou is somewhat different from Kaifeng, right?

Chapter 193: California's severe drought and difficult rice farming

In fact, since the beginning of the 21st century, the entire southwestern United States and western Mexico have been plagued by the most severe persistent drought in more than 1000 years. The rainfall in many places has plummeted to about half of that in 1900, and it has lasted for 20 years. as long as.

——In the Americas, the last time there was a drought of this level was 1200 years ago. It happened in the 9th century A.D., which ended the classical Mayan civilization and wiped out countless magnificent Mayan city-states. It was forgotten by the world. mega-drought".

Fortunately, as the overlord of the blue star in the 21st century, the technology and financial resources of the United States of America are far from comparable to the Mayan city-states of the Stone Age.Even in the face of the drought of the century, which is rare in a thousand years, Americans can still rely on advanced industrial technology to attract snow water from high mountains, dig deep wells to draw water from the ground, dig canals from distant rivers, and promote various water-saving irrigation. Advanced agricultural technology barely maintains California's agricultural water supply.

So despite the ongoing drought in the Southwest of the United States, the metropolises on the West Coast are still feasting, and the orchards and vegetable gardens in the Central Valley are always green.Except for some restrictions on community lawn watering and a reduction in urban greenery, everything seems to be the same as before.

(Some locals painted dead lawns green, others paved them with concrete, and others dug sand pits to grow cacti.)

At best, in the inland countryside, some desert towns with dozens or hundreds of people were abandoned as ghost towns due to lack of water and unable to farm.