Anyone has a link to read the underlying study?
Nasa Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
91–99 of 99 posts
Re: Nasa Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#92Re: Nasa Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
"the government arrests people and seizes factories that violate these ecological goals" Why isn't this a good thing? Shouldn't people who ignore ecological laws be punished? And anyway, how do you propose to fix climate change without massive, centralized planning, including punishment of those who subvert such a fix for personal gain? Also, in your link, the plants are closed, not seized.
I don’t understand. Why would central planning be required to fix climate change? How about just charge greenhouse gas emitters so that there are no longer externalities? I don’t see any reason to turn to central planning, unless one just uses that term to refer to any regulations involving the economy.
One example when I was there in March: I saw no 2-stroke ICE scooters, everybody is riding electric scooters. AFAIK, it was a decree by the central govt, and a very effective change since 2-strokes are notorious polluters.
Re: Nasa Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#94For sure! I'm not saying democracy should be abandoned. I'm saying that 1) china might not actually be quite like its depicted in the west 2) what we call authoritarian is often just counter to our ideology that people should be able to deploy capital however they see fit with little consequence. Anyway your point that it just takes correctly allocated capital to solve this problem is 100% salient. (And before anyone…
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20030438 and marked it off-topic.
Re: Nasa Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#95Yes, India and China may be "greener". But, as the referenced article [0] states: The greening in China is from forests (42%) and croplands (32%), but in India is mostly from croplands (82%) with minor contribution from forests (4.4%). Main driver for greening according to the authors is an increase in food production. It is not re-forestation as the Forbes' author wants readers to think: Both China and India went th…
> combat climate change, we need more forests, not just more "green" land.
Could you cite this please?
This is not common sense and seems along the normal lines of the normal climate change FUD of lying about climate change to push other agendas.
Lots of articles talk about the importance of carbon sinks using grasslands and other non-forest areas.
Re: Nasa Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
How about systemic criminalization of previously enslaved minority population so they’re unable to make any economic gains? Disenfranchisement so they’re unable to vote for leaders with their interests? That sounds pretty authoritarian to me. The difference is simply that it’s cleverly hidden from plain view.
Not every bad thing is authoritarian. Sometimes you have people powered plagues, such as racism and bigotry, which have been part of human nature for millennia.
Lawful discrimination against minorities (Jim Crow, Poll Taxes etc.) is by definition authoritarian. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarianism
Re: Nasa Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
How about systemic criminalization of previously enslaved minority population so they’re unable to make any economic gains? Disenfranchisement so they’re unable to vote for leaders with their interests? That sounds pretty authoritarian to me. The difference is simply that it’s cleverly hidden from plain view.
I see this argument a lot in China threads, "America has already used up the world's supply of crime, so everyone else is forced to remain innocent." Unfortunately, bad government is not finite, every country can manufacture their own.
I think we're in agreement.
Its ok to point out that the Chinese Government is authoritarian and does many things that Civilized people find reprehensible.
Its ok to point out that the US Government is democratic, but with many authoritarian tendencies, which have targeted minorities, Women etc. for a very long time which Civilized people find reprehensible.
Its not OK to use one incident of authoritarianism as a cudgel against another country like your own country hasn't done similar things. That is a recipe for jingoism, nationalism and other -isms.
Re: Nasa Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#98Yes, India and China may be "greener". But, as the referenced article [0] states: The greening in China is from forests (42%) and croplands (32%), but in India is mostly from croplands (82%) with minor contribution from forests (4.4%). Main driver for greening according to the authors is an increase in food production. It is not re-forestation as the Forbes' author wants readers to think: Both China and India went th…
A valid critique of the article. Though, to get a well-rounded view on this matter, take into account the per capita carbon footprints[1] also - which tells a different story than mainstream media:
Saudi Arabia: 16.85
United States: 15.53
Australia: 15.83
China: 6.59
India: 1.58
[1] https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/sc...
Re: Nasa Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
#99These kind of article raises more questions than answers. Leaving aside politics on this, I need to know more. How does this "greening" help? Is it more due to agriculture or forests? If it's due to agriculture, what are the unintended consequences? While this article is positive in its tone (which I appreciate) I can't help but feel that it's shallow. It's green so yayy! But what comes next? Increased greenery due t…
China has a lot of reforestation projects, the most notable of which is the "Green Great Wall," which is intended to hinder the growth of the Gobi dessert. The benefits of this project are questionable because the trees soak up a lot of groundwater in an already very arid area. Also, the forests rely on a few species of trees, so it's very vulnerable to disease. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-North_Shelter_Fores…
I had seen a video somewhere that the Green Great Wall was failing and in constant threat of collapse because of the arid wind and pretty much non-existent water table causing the trees to die off faster than they can be planted.
The footage had interviews with a group that tries to keep it watered.
EDIT: It might have been the initiative in Africa (Sahara). I tried finding the video and am met with similar initiatives on both continents.