Why Everything They're Saying About the Amazon Is Wrong

These kinds of outrage episodes spread in part because their message seems plausible, and they tap into the anxieties of the young and the guilt of the elites and the middle-aged. They originate from viral posts that stir up emotions while questioning the lack of media coverage in mainstream media --- long a popular tactic used by the right, but in recent years adopted by loud voices on seemingly the far left.

Without digging into every case, it's hard to nail down whether these are organic, authentic attempts by would-be influencers or true believers to bring attention to an issue, or whether they're planted stories designed to simply stoke pre-existing anxieties further. Someone should try to track this down. Nonetheless, media outlets will eventually cover the issue and the resulting social media outrage, and occasionally perpetuate false or misleading information, or highly biased viewpoints noting that bias in the process. A few publications debunking this after the fact is unlikely to reverse the spread of misinformation.

I know it’s easy to crap on people believing whatever is shared on social media and then laugh about how everyone got it wrong..

But I just don’t like this article. I don’t see how a 7% increase in forest fires in the Amazon is nothing to care about and something about the tone of the article doesn’t sit well with me.

It’s somehow trying to convince me that deforestation is going down, this is an overreaction and it’s hurting farmers.

I don’t know about that... i’ll just side with I want to remain living on this planet and I want my children to as well, more power to environmental viral hits, even if they got the facts.. a bit wrong.

Environment protection tips from Forbes and WSJ. Great. Same goes for their “tech” coverage that’s pushed here on a regular basis for some reason.

"The reaction from foreign media, global celebrities, and NGOs in Brazil stems from a romantic anti-capitalism common among urban elites."

No, it stems from looking at the sky and seeing it's black at 3pm because of smoke coming from 2000 miles way. There is nothing romantic to it. People, especially newer generations, have come to realize that capitalism as is is unsustainable. It doesn't matter if the increase in deforestation is 25, 15 or only 7%. This number shouldn't be increasing at all.

There is a vast number of species (plants and animals) whose population is severely endangered, and we cannot foresee what the impact will be should we continue to destroy them. We too care about the economy, but we don't see why large state agribusiness profits have to be prioritized in detriment of the environment. There's a multitude of ways to improve soy production without land expansion - it just so happens that burning wood is much cheaper and until recently nobody was watching.