China, India making world greener

Research by the US space agency Nasa shows that the amount of the Earth’s surface covered by green vegetation has expanded over the past two decades, and that China and India are the main contributors to the increase.
The greening phenomenon was first detected using satellite data from the mid-1990s, according to the Nasa research, published February 11, 2019, and based on nearly 20 years of information collected by instruments orbiting Earth on two satellites.
Global “green leaf area” has increased by five per cent since the early 2000s, an area equivalent to the size of the entire Amazon rainforest, according to the study. One-third of the total increase was attributed to China and India – two of the world’s most populated countries, which are more commonly known for their serious pollution problems.
The research indicates that Chinese conservation of forests and tree-planting efforts accounted for the bulk of its contribution. India’s increased green area was due to intensive farming, the data showed.
Despite the encouraging message, the Nasa scientists warned that green expansion in the past 20 years was not enough to offset wider human damage to Earth’s ecosystems.