This is the VOA Special English Environment Report.
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Eight scientists from across the United States did the study. The space agency NASA and the Department of Energy paid for it. The magazine Science published the findings.
The researchers spent a year-and-a-half examining weather and satellite information. The information was recorded from nineteen-eighty-two to nineteen-ninety-nine. This period was one of the warmest on record. Researchers found that rainfall generally increased during this time.
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The scientists report a six percent increase in stored carbon since nineteen-eighty-two. They say gains were high in equatorial areas, especially around the Amazon River in South America. The report says that area alone had a one percent increase in net primary production.
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Northern Canada, the north-central United States and northern Europe were second in increased plant growth. Ramakrishna Nemani says a rise in temperatures helped plants there.
All together, the report says twenty-five percent of areas of plant life on Earth experienced increases. But, the scientists also note increases in the number of people on Earth and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Study scientist Ranga Myneni of Boston University in Massachusetts says humans use about half the net primary production on Earth. And, he notes that world population grew by thirty-six percent during the period of time studied.This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver.