EARTH IS GREENER DUE TO
WARMING.
By REBECCA SMITH.
197 words
Mirror
22
English
(c) 2003 Mirror Group Ltd
GLOBAL warming is making plants grow
better, scientists said yesterday.
Vegetation over large areas of the earth increased by six per
cent between 1982 and 1999.
The Amazon rainforest grew massively - making up 42 per cent of the overall
increase across the globe.
The lush growth is thought to be mainly due to less cloud cover and more
sunshine, said researchers led by Ramakrishna Nemani from the
They wrote in journal Science: "Our results indicate that global changes
in climate have eased several critical climatic constraints to plant growth,
such that the net primary production increased six per cent globally." The
scientists wanted to see how changes in our climate, including rising
temperatures, different rainfall patterns and more carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere, might affect vegetation.
They found that tropical areas had the biggest plant growth over the 17 year
period studied.
Vegetation acts as "carbon sinks" because it absorbs greenhouse gas
carbon dioxide, which itself is said to contribute towards global warming.
But it is not clear if the extra plant growth is affecting the storage of
carbon on the Earth.