NASA study says – India and China are leading the global greening effort and the World is on its way to becoming green
The world was much greener in place if we go 20 years back and the recent NASA studies have revealed that India and China both are leading in greening the world. The statement was revealed by NASA on Monday and mentioned that India and China are leading ahead in the global greening effort which is more contrary to most people across the globe.
Based on the information received and analyzed from its satellite, the NASA study says that on land China and India are leading the way in greener. Lead Author of Boston University Chi Chen says that India and China have only 9 percent of the land which is mostly covered in vegetation and they are responsible for one-third of the greening effort.
The greening of the globe is due to the ambitious tree planting program in China and also because of strong agriculture activities within both countries.
Chen also said that the NASA study is quite surprising while considering the land degradation notation across populous countries from overexploitation.
The global green area has been increased by 5 percent from 2000 onwards which is equal to the Amazon rainforest; the research team noticed while researching.
On February 11, the study was revealed to the public; The Nature Sustainability journal stated that the most recent satellite data from 2000- 2017 shows a greening pattern that is greatly prominent in China and India which extends with croplands across the world.
25 percent increase in the leaf area is because of China and China alone is accountable for it and includes 6.6 percent of the global vegetated area. The greening in China is from their forests that are is 42 percent and greenery through croplands is 32 percent while in India it is opposite the 82 percent of the greenery is from croplands and a very little contribution from the forest area of 4.4 percent, NASA study revealed.
China is leading ahead with ambitious projects to preserve their forest and to expand them, and the main goal of the project is to reduce the effect of soil erosion, climate change, and air pollution.
When NASA first noticed about the greening of the Earth, we believed that it was because of the warm wetter climate condition and due to fertilization which was added into the atmosphere mainly carbon dioxide, Rama Nemani who is the research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center and also a co-author of the study stated.
The study was only possible because of a two-decade-long data record which was received from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [MODIS] instruments over NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellite. Thanks to the MODIS data, now we can see that even humans are contributing, she mentioned.
We also noticed that once if people realize that there is a problem they will try to resolve it, Nemani further said that while in the 1970s and ’60s in India and China, the condition of the vegetation was not so good.
People noticed it in the early 1990s, and now things have changed. Humans are extremely strong. That is what has been observed in the satellite data, she informed.
There is increase in the food production level in China and India by more than 35 percent from 2000 onwards which had led to increase in the harvested region with the help of various cropping facilities and due to use of fertilizer and underground water irrigation.
Numerous factors are responsible for the change in greening method, as per the paper. Consider an example; food production in India is increased due to groundwater irrigation, and if the groundwater irrigation is exhausted then the trend may be different.
The researcher observed that the direct factor is the key driver for Greening the Earth. They also highlighted that there is a need for a realistic representation of the human land practices in the Earth system models.
