Brazil's President Blames NGOs for Amazon Fires
latinamericareports.com
latinamericareports.com
Mexico seems to be inverting the popular phrase: "You can't improve what You can't measure". They defunded an agency in charge of measuring effectiveness of governmental programs, eliminated testing requirement for teachers, etc...
Maybe their job is to sabotage their economies.
I live in Brazil and I disagree. I think his government is messy, but the previous ones were pretty bad as well. They almosted bankrupted the country, which was why Bolsonaro managed to elect himself as president with the argument of "I'm not them". He is simply incompetent, which shows.
Watch what he does, not what he says.
...Typically we put out the fires first then assign the blame, seeing as it doesn’t really matter who’s fault it is once it’s started...
- https://www.newsweek.com/pray-amazonia-brazil-jair-bolsonaro...
- https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/americas/amazon-fires-humans-...
For a lot of people it’s more important to put blame than solving a problem.
It's very hard to understand what is happening from the media (Brazilian or international). This map explains:
- why it's so concerning even if the fires are overall smaller than the Amazon average for this time - because most of Acre and Rondônia are on fire, the average is down pushed by the largest, less populated states.
- what is up with the national and Acre's governments fighting on TV - most of the fire is there.
- How can the smoke reach São Paulo even though there's none of it here at the middle of the way in Brasilia - it literally took a turn at Bolivia.
The Bolivian and Peruvian people are probably not happy at all with the fires. I wonder why I don't see them complaining.
> As of August 16, 2019, an analysis of NASA satellite data indicated that total fire activity across the Amazon basin this year has been close to the average in comparison to the past 15 years.
Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145464/fires-in-bra...
> Although it is not unusual to see fires in Brazil at this time of year due to high temperatures and low humidity it seems this year the number of fires may be record setting. According to Brazil’s space research center INPE almost 73,000 fires have been recorded so far this year. INPE is seeing an 83% increase over the same period in 2018.
Number of fires doesn't seem like a good measure. A simple change in how you distinguish between two fires in close proximity can dramatically change the numbers. Higher resolution measurements can allow you to distinguish between two fires that might have looked like one in years prior.
A much better measure would be to look at the quantity of surface area on fire.
It seems like believing it requires that groups dedicated to preserving the Amazon's rain forests are burning it, and ignores Bolsonaro's long and well-documented track record on the issue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jair_Bolsonaro#Environmental_p...
Blaming is bad for both Bolsonaro and the ones spreading the Propaganda.
One thing is clear: no one spreading the news will care in a week how it started and what can be done for preventing this happen again.
But really, what are you supposed to do? Merely being aware of some tragedy occurring far away doesn’t do anything. The people who perpetuated it don’t give a damn. Are we supposed to go put out the fires? Are we supposed to go kill the people who did this?
If there’s nothing I can do, then I’m better off not knowing. I have more relevant things to care about. The only thing this awareness campaign tells me is that Brazilians have done a terrible job of protecting their rainforest, and they should be judged accordingly in the future.
The first step on the long road of change is acknowledging that a problem exists.
Just because you can't imagine how you can effect change, doesn't mean it isn't possible. Problems of this scale require a sufficiently scaled solution. Economic sanctions and treaties would provide incentives for change. Hit Brazil's government and business leaders where it hurts: their wallets and their power on the world stage.
General awareness of a problem is needed to mobilize political action. If the solution to the problem is political, awareness of the issue might inspire direct action, or at least voting for policy that effects change.
A month ago I would have been more likely to find a more cut and dry factual assessment of these fires than I could today. The attention economy coupled with pandering to the lowest common denominator and the ROI of manipulating perception is paralyzing our ability to solve any problem.
This also hurts ordinary citizens in Brazil trying to make a living.
While the Amazon is in Brazilian territory, it is one of the largest carbon sinks in the world and therefore has a global positive externality. Therefore this is not a domestic issue.
Perhaps by spreading awareness we can shift the Overton window on how these cross-border climate issues should be addressed. E.g. perhaps Brazil should be paid from a global fund to not cut down the rain forest.
It used to be. Bolsonaro called it "bribery", and said Merkel should mind her own business (Germany was the main benefactor).
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/16/norway-halts-a...
Despite that, your excerpt on "(...) they should be judged accordingly in the future." is almost a religious statement. Or maybe you are assuming that all Brazilians voted for the fires, so next time you see one you have a judgement to state? No matter the angle I look, this is a very unfortunate statement. Or more precisely "judgement" is a very unwise word choice I daresay.
http://queimadas.dgi.inpe.br/queimadas/portal/situacao-atual
The http://queimadas.dgi.inpe.br site also has links to a lot of raw data on wildfires in Brazil.