How plants are slowing down global warming

BOSTON — Researchers from Boston University have found that increased vegetation growth, or greening, has effectively slowed global warming.

Greening usually involves intensive land use for farming, planting trees at a large scale or natural reforestation of lands that have been abandoned. The study found that roughly half of Earth's vegetated land has been greened due to this technique.

For the study, scientists analyzed satellite images from the 1980s to the 2010s. They noticed an increase of greening in China and India over the decades due to afforestation efforts.

As green leaves convert sunlight to sugar, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is replaced with water vapor which cools Earth's surface.

In the study, researchers explained that global greening may have slowed the rate of global warming by roughly 0.2 to 0.23 degrees Celsius.

Study authors Shilong Piao and Xuhui Wang, explained in a Boston University news release that this provides "credible evidence" that human activities are dramatically impacting Earth's climate.