> I don't see how trying to tell the truth about something can be equated with trying to downplay the situation or encouraging people not to bother about it.

Because it's a red herring.

It's a very common form of red herring, to be precise: taking averaged measurements of a whole set to infer information about a single element. The converse is also a red herring; inferring information about a set by analyzing only a single, cherry picked member.

"Fires Globally" includes "Fires in the region X of country Y", but doesn't take into account the specific importance of that region, the trends over time, what's going to happen to surrounding regions in the future...

(For a quick metaphor: You have 99.5%~99.8% of your body in perfect working order when your eyes have just been gouged.)