Radio Islam International – 2019/02/13

The world is a greener place than it was 20 years ago, and the data from NASA satellites has revealed a counter-intuitive source for much of this new greenery: China and India.

The new study shows that the two emerging countries with the world’s biggest populations are leading the improvement in greening on land.

The effect stems mainly from ambitious tree planting programs in China and intensive agriculture in both countries.

“Nasa scientists recorded a 5 per cent increase in the planet’s green leaf area since the early 2000s – the equivalent of an extra Amazon rainforest”#ClimateChange #China #India #NASA

SCMP via @inkl: https://t.co/xiLSjSKlRr

— Gautam Mishra (@jeamish) February 13, 2019

In 2017 alone, India broke its own world record for the most trees planted after volunteers gathered to plant 66 million saplings in just 12 hours.

The greening phenomenon was first detected by researchers using satellite data in the mid-1990s, but they did not know whether human activity was one of its chief, direct causes.

This new insight was made possible by a nearly 20-year-long data record from a NASA instrument orbiting the Earth on two satellites.

Taken all together, the greening of the planet over the last two decades represents an increase in leaf area on plants and trees equivalent to the area covered by all the Amazon rainforests.

There are now more than two million square miles of extra green leaf area per year, compared to the early 2000s – which amounts to a 5% increase.

Chi Chen of the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University and lead author of the study says China and India account for one-third of the greening, but contain only 9% of the planet’s land area covered in vegetation.

“A surprising finding, considering the general notion of land degradation in populous countries from overexploitation.”

The researchers point out that the gain in greenness seen around the world, which is dominated by India and China, does not offset the damage from loss of natural vegetation in tropical regions, such as Brazil and Indonesia.

(Source: Nasa)