the news here is eh and pretty good, respectively: here's to hoping that this trend continues in those two countries and begins to take place in others.
the news here is eh and pretty good, respectively:
The extent of the global greening is bigger than previously measured using other, less precise instruments. Even more interesting: Chen was able to pinpoint the causes of increasing — or decreasing — leaf cover in particular areas.
The most striking changes, though, were the result of human decisions in China and India. Both countries have been getting a lot greener.
The greening of India, Brown says, comes from a huge expansion of irrigated agriculture: "Instead of having just crops when it's raining, they also have a whole six months of cropping and greenness when it's not raining."
This version of greening isn't really so great for the environment, though. The irrigation drains groundwater, vegetation is wiped away at harvest time and the extra fertilizer farmers use releases greenhouse gases.
In China, though, about half of the new leaf cover that Chen detected appears to be the result of a massive reforestation effort. It's a government-sponsored attempt to prevent catastrophic dust storms that resulted from earlier deforestation.
here's to hoping that this trend continues in those two countries and begins to take place in others.
the news here is eh and pretty good, respectively:
here's to hoping that this trend continues in those two countries and begins to take place in others.