The arctic is greening. So says NASA. Its probably all that extra CO2.
Scientists from America’s space agency have found that nearly a third of the land cover in Canada and Alaska has greened in recent decades as a result of climate change.
As the far north warms as a result of climate changes, plants are moving north as well, “greening” the far north.
It also shows that the boreal forest is “browning” as a result of hotter and drier weather.
Greening is unmistakeable
NASA analyzed some 87,000 images captured by the Landsat satellite showing a trend towards much more plant life across the north. Their findings were reported in the science publication Journal of Remote Sensing under the title- The vegetation greenness trend in Canada and US Alaska from 1984–2012 Landsat data.
The data shows that about a third of the previously mostly barren tundra had become covered with plants. Areas that were previously grassland showed small shrubs had moved in, and in turn larger shrubs then took over even as the grasslands and other small plants moved further north.
The article also says:
a warming Arctic could release massive amounts of carbon stored in the Arctic soil and permafrost
Hey! Doesn’t more vegetation suck CO2 out of the air and store it in the ground?
sunshine hours 