The Greening Of The Arctic

Thanks to climate change, the Arctic is turning green

Chris Mooney, June 27, 2016 (Washington Post)

“…[A NASA visualization shows the] startling climate change trend that the Earth is getting greener, as viewed from space…[New research not only reinforces the reality of this trend] but statistically attributes it to human causes, which largely means greenhouse gas emissions (albeit with a mix of other elements as well)…[The roughly three-decade trend is of more leaf area per ground area] across most of the northern hemisphere outside of the tropics…

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"While this formal detection and attribution appears to be new, the report is at least the third study in the past several months alone to highlight northern hemisphere greening and to reinforce this basic conclusion…[T]he subtext of all of this research is clear — a key fraction of all the greenhouse gases that humans pour into the atmosphere each year is pulled back into plants through the process of photosynthesis…It is clear, then, that greening is emerging as a factor with the potential to blunt some of the worst impacts of human greenhouse gas emissions. But thus far, researchers do not seem to be arguing that it’s enough to counterbalance the entire human-induced warming trend…” click here for more

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