While common horse-sense in the west might suggest that the fast-industrializing south would be responsible for making Earth a much greyer, more polluted and desertified place, NASA satellites have found that the world's two most populous countries – China and India – are actually making the earth a greener place than it used to be twenty years ago.

This new study released by NASA researchers in the journal Nature Sustainability demonstrates that global green leaf areas on Earth have increased by 5% since the beginning of the 21st century, an area equal to all of the Amazon rainforest.

The scientists relied on a study of maps which revealed the increase or decrease of green vegetation between 2000 and 2017. Using two satellites, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, provided high-resolution data and detailed imagery allowing researchers to see the details of the Earth’s vegetation from a level of approximately 1,600 feet above the ground.

As explained Lead author Chi Chen of Boston University:

“China and India account for one-third of the greening, but contain only nine percent of the planet’s land area covered in vegetation … That is a surprising finding, considering the general notion of land degradation in populous countries from overexploitation.”

A quarter of the new growth happened in China. Since the mid-90s, the People’s Republic of China launched an ambitious new project to turn back or ameliorate the effects of erosion, smog, climate change, rampant pollution, and deforestation that were unleashed by a mixture of inadequate regulations and free-market reforms that saw the country become the de-facto “world’s workshop.”

With the purpose to conserve and expand its forests, Beijing launched massive tree-planting mobilizations which called on all citizens and soldiers to plant trees as a matter of civic duty, leading to more than 40% of the country’s greening. Previously barren land was turned into dense forests, a measure meant to control floods which also soaked up massive amounts of carbon dioxide.

In India, which is still a mostly agrarian society, much of the greening was the result of the intensive cultivation of crops. Such agricultural activity accounts for 82% of greening in India, versus 23% in China. Both India and China have boosted their food production efforts to feed their massive, urbanizing populations.

While China has been a green leader in the emerging East, India broke records in 2017 when volunteers planted 66 million saplings in approximately twelve hours.

Reforestation efforts will be critical in regulating Earth’s carbon cycle and absorbing the fast-increasing carbon emissions resulting from human activities, which are mainly driven by the global market’s unchecked and profit-driven pursuit of short-term economic growth, frequently with no regard for long-term environmental and ecological costs.

While the country's reforestation efforts and moves to transition toward renewable energy sources have been admirable, China is still primarily reliant on fossil fuels which make the country the most significant greenhouse gas emitter on the planet.

Scientists warn that the greening trend could either change or be reversed, due to various factors. For instance, increased food production in India could grind to a halt if groundwater is polluted or depleted.

It was once known as the "sea of death", but after decades of greening, it's now famed for the "Kubuqi model" that tamed one of China's most formidable deserts. #desertification pic.twitter.com/07Orh6iZM0 — China Xinhua News (@XHNews) August 6, 2018



Meanwhile, the loss of natural vegetation has proceeded apace in tropical regions like the South American Amazon, Brazil, and Indonesia, impacting the biodiversity and long-term health that make green landscapes sustainable on a long-term basis.

Nevertheless, the new report offers a cause for hope to the researchers. Rama Nemani, co-author of the study and research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, pointed out:

“Once people realize there is a problem, they tend to fix it … In the '70s and 80s in India and China, the situation around vegetation loss was not good. In the '90s, people realized it, and today things have improved. Humans are incredibly resilient. That’s what we see in the satellite data.”