Call me a cynic, but every time some new environmental or climate change moral panic suddenly grips the legacy media – and especially its wagging-tail, social media – I immediately check to see if there’s either another big environmental-political circus due or a left-wing politician in trouble.
So when the social media Chicken Little screeching about the Amazon supposedly burning to the ground began, with the legacy media rushing to fall into line, it was no surprise to find the following triple-whammy. Not only is the G7 elite excursion week about to begin, but the UN is about to chill the champagne and rev up the private jets for yet another climate gabfest. More tellingly, the whole Amazon kerfuffle was kicked off by failing Frog lefty, Emmanuel Macron.
Well, colour me surprised.
Imagine my shock, too, to find that the whole circus doesn’t even stand up to the scrutiny of a two-minute Google search or even to basic arithmetic. Jo Nova has summarised the basic fact-checking that Twitter hysterics are plainly incapable of. To sum it all in one line: The whole thing is a political beat-up and the Amazon is experiencing nothing but average dry-season forest fires.
Global Fire Data shows this year is unequivocally a low fire season in the Amazon. But social media tears and outrage is running at 1000% driven by old photos and fake facts of the Amazon producing “20% of our planet’s oxygen” […] Based on hyperbolic twitter pics French leader Macron is threatening to cancel a foreign trade deal. The hype serves the purpose of attacking the right wing Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro in the lead up to a G7 summit this week.
The photo he used? It’s a stock photo from Loren McIntyre, a photographer who died in 2003.
That should have set everyone’s bullshit meters clanging. But if that’s not enough, here are the numbers:
The tally of fire counts here is up to data for August 22, 2019. Emissions are preliminary estimates based on fire counts, but the graph shows just how ordinary, normal and boring 2019 is expected to be when the final numbers are done.
Whenever someone starts gibbering about the Amazon, the first thing to keep in mind is just how freaking big the Amazon actually is. For instance, the once-respectable National Geographic shrieked that more than 7,000 square miles has been “razed”. Well, that does sound pretty scary. Except that the Amazon covers more than two million square miles. So, the area “razed” amounts to just 0.3%. Suddenly, it’s less scary.
Nonetheless, the legacy media obediently jumped to the crack of the Twitter whip. Yet, even the hacks struggled to beat this non-event up. From the thoroughly alarmist BBC:
“US space agency Nasa, meanwhile, has said that overall fire activity across the Amazon basin this year has been close to the average compared to the past 15 years.”
Remember when it comes to climate change, NASA are the definitive last word, but when it comes to Amazon fires, they’re just a casual addendum. “No comment”.
Jonathon Watts at The Guardian carefully words the panic. It’s almost as if he is aware of what is going on but not happy to make it too clear.
In fact, the whole ruckus is such obvious bullshit that even Michael Mann is calling time-out. Yes: Michael freaking Mann. Mann particularly responded to hysterical claims about “the lungs of the planet” (a claim that was debunked almost as soon as it dribbled from Sting’s smug, overpaid gob, back in the 80s).
The hype is so over the top even Michael Mann is watering it down. This might be the first time Michael Mann is on the same side as skeptics?
Do we need to worry about oxygen?
No. Although some reports have claimed the Amazon produces 20% of the world’s oxygen, it is not clear where this figure originated. The true figure is likely to be no more than 6%, according to climate scientists such as Michael Mann and Jonathan Foley. Even if it were accurate, the crops being planted in the cleared forest areas would also produce oxygen – quite likely at higher levels. So although the burning of the rainforest is worrying for many reasons, there is no need to worry about an oxygen shortage.
joannenova.com.au/2019/08/firestorm-of-fake-news-convenient-global-hysteria-about-amazon-based-on-nothing-but-twitter-pics/
When the Hockey Stick guy is calling b.s., you really know it’s a complete non-event.
