NASA's latest study revealed that China and India are leading the way in turning the Earth into a greener place to live in. The research used extensive satellite imagery to achieve results.
The study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, found out that China and India are home to the largest clusters of green foliage, adding that tree-planting efforts by both countries have helped increase leafier spaces in the world.
Lead author of the NASA study and graduate researcher at Boston University's Department of Earth and Environment, Chi Chen said in a statement, "China and India account for one-third of the greening, but contain only 9 percent of the planet's land area covered in vegetation - a surprising finding, considering the general notion of land degradation in populous countries from overexploitation."
To come up with the results, a NASA sensor called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was used to obtain high-resolution data of the Earth's surface. The MODIS was placed on two satellites between 2000 and 2017.
Researchers discovered that a quarter of the growth in greener areas was tracked in China. Through the government and organizations' efforts in planting more trees as well as conserving forests in the Asian country, climate change effects were reduced.
For its part, India accounted for 6.8 percent of the rise in leafy foliage. 4.4 percent of the country's forests and 82 percent of its croplands helped up overall figures. Along with China, the South Asian country engaged in replanting fields and harvesting crops multiple times per year.
Previously, the NASA team thought warmer and wetter climates added to the increase of leaf growth across the world. However, further study using the MODIS data helped come up with the conclusion that human effort is contributing to the developments in restoring the Earth.
According to CNN, the researchers also stressed that the latest findings do not mean the negative effects of deforestation and environmental degradation have been curbed. There are still depleted green areas in other locations. On the other hand, the researchers are optimistic about future changes that governments can pick up from the study.
BBC reported that the Earth's greening was first detected in the mid-1990s wherein scientists were yet unsure if farming and forestry reforms contributed to the positive changes in the Earth's surface.
With China's contribution of 42 percent in the greening process and India's significant additions to the overall figures, researchers are hoping that these developments will help scientists make improved predictions of climate change and Earthy system behaviors.
