Chapter Ninety: Natural Ecotechnology

The two of them had been bickering the whole time, ignoring every attempt by the people around them to calm them down. It was so bad that Zhang Mingyang could not even sleep; by the end, his ears had gone numb and his mind was buzzing.

The chief engineer was so annoyed that he kept shaking his head, but there was nothing he could do. Those two looked determined to see the matter through to the end.

A chime sounded from the chief engineer’s watch. He glanced at the time and saw that it was noon, then called out to the people behind him, “It’s twelve. You can all have lunch now.”

Zhang Mingyang checked the time too. Good heavens! The two of them had argued for nearly five hours straight, without drinking a drop of water or eating a bite of food. They really could endure.

“Senior Brother! Sister Xu!”

Zhang Mingyang forced his way between them and pointed at his watch. “It’s noon. You two should reload your ammunition first and continue the battle later.”

Peng Dongli glared fiercely at Xu Yuqing. “If you still want to keep going, don’t run off later!” With that, he took out his lunch from beneath the seat and started eating.

Xu Yuqing, naturally unwilling to be outdone, shot back with an equally sharp retort before taking out his lunch and beginning to eat.

The moment the two of them fell silent, Zhang Mingyang felt as if the world had finally gone quiet. He shook his head to ease his fatigue, then started eating his own lunch.

By then, the rocket had long since left lunar orbit and was heading toward Earth, whose image was already clearly visible on the giant screen ahead.

After four days apart, Zhang Mingyang looked at Earth again and felt something different. The first time he had seen it from outer space, he had only been overwhelmed by its grandeur. But after a few days away, seeing it again was like a child returning home at last, and his heart was filled with longing.

Seeing him stare foolishly at the Earth on the screen, Peng Dongli could not help waving a hand in front of him. “Junior Brother, are you all right? What are you looking at?”

“Ah! Nothing.”

Just then, Zhang Mingyang had been thinking of his family and friends on Earth.

Then another thought suddenly surfaced in his mind. He turned to the two beside him and asked, “Senior Brother, Sister Xu, have you ever thought about the day Earth reaches the end of its life?”

Hearing this question, Peng Dongli shook his head. “From an astronomical perspective, Earth is about 4.6 billion years old. If we set aside the threat from the Sun, it still has at least five billion years left. It’ll probably be evaporated by the Sun after it turns into a red giant from the intense heat. As for that scene... forget it, I’d rather not think about it.”

“Pah! If you don’t know, just say you don’t know. Don’t make so many excuses,” Xu Yuqing sneered at Peng Dongli without mercy.

Xu Yuqing went on, “Speaking of Earth’s lifespan, we have to consider the Sun. Like all things, the Sun, as a star, will be born, flourish, and then die. The Sun that we depend on for survival will be no exception. And when the day comes that the Sun dies, Earth, its planet, will perish along with it. But Earth’s destruction will not be silent. Just as Senior Brother said, it will be scorched by the intense heat of the Sun after it has become a red giant, and then evaporate away.

“If we ignore the Sun and speak only of Earth’s natural death, then there are many possibilities, and the timing would be different too.”

“Why?” Zhang Mingyang asked in confusion. “Could Earth die several times?”

Xu Yuqing explained, “Earth, like a human, has its day of aging too. Its body will slowly decay. A person’s life has birth, age, sickness, and death; after birth, one steps gradually toward death. Earth’s process is similar: formation, stability, decline, and emptiness. After it forms, it operates in a stable state, then gradually breaks down, and finally vanishes into nothing.”

“At present, the average human lifespan is eighty-one years, but some people die suddenly from illness, car accidents, and all kinds of other causes. Could Earth also die early because of some sudden accident?”

“From the perspective of biology, Earth’s rate of decline depends on its environment. Given the way things are developing now, even if all humanity switched to clean energy and stopped emitting carbon dioxide, Earth still would not live to see the day the Sun dies.”

“Why?” Zhang Mingyang asked.

“Because of population. Population is the key to a race’s prosperity. If a country does not have enough people, it cannot be called a great power. But more people means needing more land, and that also means more food. It is a bit like a virus: as long as the population keeps increasing, the day will come when Earth’s environment is damaged.”

“What you just said is wrong!” Peng Dongli argued. “It is precisely because humans are so numerous that civilizations and nations can be formed. If you reduce population for the sake of the environment, then you are opposing our species. Don’t forget: without humanity, there would be no Earth.”

“Hey! What do you mean, no humanity, no Earth? Explain that clearly to me.”

Seeing that the two were about to start again, Zhang Mingyang hurriedly stopped them. “Both of you, is there any way to save Earth?”

“There is, of course there is!”

Peng Dongli said, “It would have to be interstellar migration. That would both export population to ease Earth’s pressure and allow us to mine future resources to rebuild Earth.”

Zhang Mingyang then looked at Xu Yuqing and asked whether he had any other ideas.

Xu Yuqing thought for a moment and replied, “Migration is definitely possible, but I also have another idea: use natural ecological technology to repair Earth.”

“Repair it? How?”

Xu Yuqing gestured with his hands, but neither of them understood. “Honestly, how can you two be so stupid? I mean rebuilding ecological niches.”

“From a biological standpoint, it’s called replenishing ecological niches. In other words, using biogenetic technology to clone extinct plants and animals, then releasing them back into nature to rebalance the ecosystem. In this way, not only can Earth be saved, but it can also be repaired and returned to its peak condition.”

After hearing Xu Yuqing’s plan, Zhang Mingyang felt it was less reliable than his senior brother’s. Interstellar migration might be achieved in a hundred years or so, but rebuilding a natural ecosystem would be a massive undertaking. Human labor, material resources, funding, and the process of collecting all the genetic samples would take an unknown amount of time, and even after release, the ecosystem would need centuries to recover.

Xu Yuqing added, “Natural ecological technology can not only repair Earth, but also provide enormous help for humanity’s future interstellar migration.”

“What kind of help?” Peng Dongli still did not believe in the technology.

“Think about it. Natural ecological technology is, in essence, the ecological environment of an entire planet. If we apply it in advance to the planets we plan to migrate to, wouldn’t we be able to save ourselves the trouble of building all kinds of oxygen-supply equipment and isolation structures? Then we could run around freely just like we do on Earth, without having to wear heavy spacesuits every time we go outside. How convenient would that be?”

“That actually makes sense!” Listening to Xu’s explanation, Zhang Mingyang felt that this technology would truly be of great use in the future.

“Sister Xu, how is your research on that technology going?”