By Joe Pinkstone For Mailonline
Published: 10:39 GMT, 1 March 2019 | Updated: 16:25 GMT, 1 March 2019
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China and India have planted so many trees that the world is now greener than it was 20 years ago, a counterintuitive new study claims.
The superpowers are two of the world's top three most polluting nations and the increase in foliage is mostly a result of 'ambitious tree planting programs'.
NASA research discovered there is five per cent more greenery every year compared to the 2000s, resulting in more than two million square miles of extra greenery - the equivalent of more than the Amazon rainforest.
But researchers say this increase in vegetation is not enough to offset the damage of deforestation.
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China and India have planted so many trees that the world is now greener than it was 20 years ago. NASA research discovered there is five per cent, on average, more greenery every year compared to the 2000s (pictured)
Chi Chen from Boston University, who led the research, said China and India 'account for one-third of the greening, but contain only 9 percent of the planet's land area covered in vegetation'.
The greening on the planet was first detected in the mid-1990s and from images provided by NASA'S MODIS tool which orbits the Earth on two satellites and provides high resolution images of Earth's surface.
China is responsible for a quarter of the overall increase in green leaf area but has only 6.6
