The NASA satellites have revealed in a recent report that the world is greener than it was 20 years ago. The study shows that China and India are the two emerging countries which have the world's biggest population and now are leading the world to become more greener in the past years. The study further claims that the reason behind this massive change are the various tree planting programs in China. Also, the boost in agriculture in both the countries is one of the reasons for this change. India broke its own record of planting trees in 2017. Volunteers planted 66 million saplings in just 12 hours in India, which is a very big thing indeed.
NASA had an instrument that orbited the Earth on two satellites for 20 years. This instrument recorded this data. The instrument is known as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrodiometer. In short, it can be called as the MODIS. This instrument provides a very high-resolution data with accurate information. With the help of this instrument researchers concluded that the world is greener as compared to the past 20 years. NASA reports that the world has become greener and the amount of leaf area on plants and trees can be equivalent to the amount of the area covered by the Amazon Rainforests. In other words, there is an addition of two million square miles of green leaf area in the world as compared to the year 2000.
However, China and India are said to be accountable for the one-third of this greening. Moreover, the MODIS satellite sensor has captures about 4 shots of each place on earth in the past 20 years. This instrument is considered to be a helpful resource to research on long term progressing of different subjects such as the earth's climate. A research scientist said that when they noticed the greening of the earth, they first thought it was because of the warmer and wetter climate. A warmer and wetter climate adds carbon dioxide to the environment which initiates more leaf growth. However, the MODIS later revealed the true picture that why the earth was getting greener.
China and its vast population has however played a 42% role in conserving forests. The particular programs to conserve and expand forests were conducted by the country to reduce soil erosion, air pollution and climate change. However, it leaded to a greener world. Whereas, India participated in a greener world by doing intensive cultivation of food crops. Both the countries have played an important role in the greener world by cultivating food crops. This was done through multiple cropping practices. When a field was harvested, it was again cultivated to replant, which in turn produced multiple harvests in a year. The production of food crops have increased by 35 to 40 percent in the past years. The reason behind this is the large population of both the countries.
We hope and pray that the greening process doesn't change In the upcoming years. However, if it may change there may be a number of factors behind it including the groundwater irrigation in India.