The global green effort has been made use of by India and China, says NASA. However, the rest of the world does feel otherwise. A study by NASA says that the world is way greener than it was 20 years ago, and India along with China have a major part to play in it.
NASA’s satellite data shows that China and India have been contributing one-third of the greening, however, only 9 per cent of the planet's land area covered in vegetation comes from these two countries.
The study was published in the Nature Sustainability journal on February 11, which said that the satellite data between 2000 and 2017 showed a greening pattern which is prominent in India and China and overlaps with croplands across the globe.
The production of food both in China and India has increased by 35 per cent since 2000 due to increase in harvested area as a result of multiple cropping facilitated by use of fertilizers as well as groundwater irrigation.
The study was possible because of 20-year-old data from MODIS - Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instruments on satellites of NASA namely Terra and Aqua. Between 1970 and 1980, the vegetation loss situation was not good.
However, humans realized they needed to do something about it, and it looks like they really did. However, in the coming years, greening trend may change due to several factors.
It was also pointed out that greenness increase globally does not offset the natural vegetation loss in Brazil and Indonesia. Study said that there are consequences for biodiversity and sustainability in ecosystems like those beyond the greenness of the landscape.
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