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Comment by xwdv | Hacker News Reader

I see this meme pop up on social media all the time now about how the Amazon rainforest is burning and to spread the “awareness”.

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.

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Our awareness alone might reduce the harm being done. If this were front and center on all cablenews and connected to alarming news like the Greenland glacier melting faster than anticipated it might reduce the pace at which Bolsonaro and the forces aligned with him light these fires.

> Merely being aware of some tragedy occurring far away doesn’t do anything.

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.

Just because change is possible, doesn’t mean my awareness has any part to play in it.

Very few problems are solved by simply ignoring them.

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.

That might be a good statement for a motivational book but it isn’t true. A massive amount of problems have been solved throughout my life without me even being aware of them. The key is that the people aware of those problems were exactly in the right position to do something effective about them.

This. I would go even further and say that, if anything, bringing attention to an issue in this day and age makes it highly politicized and increases the likelihood that those with an agenda on any side of the issue will try to manipulate perception, thereby making it harder to make an honest assessment of the issue.

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.

> Hit Brazil's government and business leaders where it hurts: their wallets

This also hurts ordinary citizens in Brazil trying to make a living.

> Brazilians have done a terrible job of protecting their rainforest

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.

> 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...

The fire is not purposeless. The land will be reused for livestock, to have more cows and food for them as well. A big chunk of it will be exported to countries that buy these things. Chances are that it includes your country as well. So maybe rethinking your / your network diet is a big incentive to prevent further fires.

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.

But if he doesn't eat the steak someone else will! </s>

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