Previously discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20029966
NASA Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
51–60 of 71 posts
Re: NASA Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
No longterm effect, one specialized bug with good conditions and that monoculture is dead. But that will give room for other species which would have a chance to root if it wasn't for the monocultures being so tightly planted
We have this back home, pine monoculture planted some 50-60 years ago to make parts of mountains more visually appealing (and probably more good reasons like cleaner air). In 2004 there was a freak storm with quite strong winds, half of that forest was destroyed, in many cases trees literally snapped in the middle of the trunk. Still pretty bad sight 25 years later. They said it was freak accident that happens every…
A similar event occurred in Italy: https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltempo_sul_Triveneto_del_2...
Whole swaths of forest razed, a tree monoculture planted after WWI in remembrance of the battles and the destruction fought in that quadrant of the Apls.
Re: NASA Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#53I find the title misleading, the main reason Earth is getting greener is mainly because of higher CO2 emissions[0]. Saying the earth is getting greener thanks to China and India, is forgetting that ~84% of the increase is not related to these countries[1]. What is truly new, is that human activity in India and China alone is responsable of a 16% increase of leaf area. So, to quote original article: > now that we know…
Correct of course.
"Results showed that carbon dioxide fertilization explains 70 percent of the greening effect, said co-author Ranga Myneni, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University. “The second most important driver is nitrogen, at 9 percent. "
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fer...
The greening is also observed in areas unaffected by man's agricultural activities.
Re: NASA Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have this back home, pine monoculture planted some 50-60 years ago to make parts of mountains more visually appealing (and probably more good reasons like cleaner air). In 2004 there was a freak storm with quite strong winds, half of that forest was destroyed, in many cases trees literally snapped in the middle of the trunk. Still pretty bad sight 25 years later. They said it was freak accident that happens every…
My guess is that you are talking about Slovakia here. My weak Slovak makes it hard for me to research facts, so I tend to rely on my wife; but I understand that unfortunately the parkland is not "left on its own". The state fells a lot of timber in the parks. They use the borers as an excuse, but cut down more than they need to control them. There's yet another sad story for forests among the negative externalities f…
Yepp, that's the place. I actually come from the region just below the mountains, so see it anytime I go back home. Not nice at all.
Yes some crooks were/are using this to cut more (healthy) trees, ie having permit for 10 but cutting down 100 trees. Then there are large parts of still standing forest which completely died out due to overpopulation of tree eating bugs (which happened due to dead wood not being removed). Most of this happening in highly protected park.
Law enforcement is pretty bad back home (read - cops are often beyond useless and corrupt), with general public viewing such thievery as semi-acceptable. One of many reasons I moved out, no matter how nice the nice parts are, the bad ones are plenty and sour the whole experience.
Re: NASA Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#55Forest coverage has been increasing in several European countries as well (e.g. UK and France off the top of my head)
Re: NASA Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
What on earth does reforestation by humans have to do with climate change?
"You see, Earth is getting greener! Things are getting better! Maybe we don't need to cut down on fossil fuels and wasteful consumption after all!"
Exactly, this is precisely the kind of stuff I hear. Also not sure why so many downvotes lol, I think many misunderstood what I was saying
Re: NASA Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#57China is also the biggest contributor to CO2 emission by a large margin.
Not yet by cumulative emissions, and CO2 is a cumulative problem. Also definitely not per capita.
Numerically integrating the emissions of China and US [1] from 1971-2016 leads to:
China: 183,000 million tons C02
US: 234,000 million tons C02
That's a 1.28x more for the US. Since industrialization in the US started well before 1971 (you can infer this from the graph), this is significant underestimate.
Obviously, the other important estimate is per capita emissions, which would be even lower for China than the 1.28x estimate above.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_fossil_carbon_dioxi...
Re: NASA Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#58Previously discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20029966
Thanks, Thought I was going crazy.
Lol about it being crops and not trees, what a crap article.
Re: NASA Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your point of well explained in the book 'Rational Optimist' The intensive farming actually increased wilderness. With tech of 1960, it would have required 86% of land to be farmed to feed current world population.
A lot of the "forests" we have at least here are planted monocultures which are periodically completely cut down. Also known as "tree farms". All trees are the same age. Also the forest is full of ditches that makes it hard to pass for animals. The ecosystem and the species living there are quite different to real more natural forests. Most people have never even been to a multi century old forest anymore. Also we ge…
I am a forester and maybe I can chime in. From the point of view of CO2 assimilation the clear-cut or even better cut in small parts over the years forests are much better than those old-growth multicentury forests around the world. Actually old-growth forest will accumulate less CO2 than younger counterparts and may have ratio of realeased and accumulate CO2 being close to 1:1. Number of species at least in European or rather Polish forests are pretty large in both natural protected and normally used forests. Of course they are countries with worse forest conditions like for example Africa or Scandinavia, but still greener planet = better planet. It doesn't matter that much, why it is greener.
The general approach changes at least here. The largest difference is relatively smaller density of dead wood in the forests, which is important and still not fully understood habitat.
Re: NASA Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
"You see, Earth is getting greener! Things are getting better! Maybe we don't need to cut down on fossil fuels and wasteful consumption after all!"
Exactly, this is precisely the kind of stuff I hear. Also not sure why so many downvotes lol, I think many misunderstood what I was saying
They must have, yes. You have my upvote, FWIW.