[Balding_Eagle]

I am not sure this is true. The number is too big.

I think you are right: In all this hupla about the snow in China, not one satellite picture.

[bioqubit]

18.6 million hectares is roughly 72,000 sq. miles - that is a little smaller than the area of New England.

You can check my math

1 acre = .4 hectares
1 hectare = 2.47 acres
1 sq mile = 640 acres
259 hectares in one square mile
divide 18.6 mill ha by 260 hectare, and that gets around 70,000 square miles. Maine alone is around 35,000 square miles.