Don't Panic: Amazon Burning
Is Mostly Farms, Not Forests
Reason,
by
Ronald Bailey
Original Article
Posted By: Pluperfect,
8/24/2019 3:35:00 PM
"A picture is worth a thousand words" is one of the dumbest aphorisms ever coined. Speaking as a former television producer, I'd say a picture takes a thousand words to explain. Take this much-circulated NASA satellite photo showing vast smoke plumes over the Amazon region:(Snip for photo)Combined with a report from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research that says the agency had detected 39,194 fires in the region, a 77 percent jump up from the same period in 2018, that picture has launched alarmed headlines around the world.
"Amazon rainforest is burning at an unprecedented rate," declares CNN.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Illinois Mom 8/24/2019 3:54:25 PM (No. 161213)
So it turns out that the "Amazon rainforest is burning at an unprecedented rate," (Implying or downright say it is due to "climate change") spiel coming from the Left is actually farmers burning their field in preparation for next years planting. A pretty considerable stretching of the truth...again.
Apparently, there are some other wild fires but right now, they don't seems to be an "unprecedented" number.
BUT...don't confuse these zealots with the truth. In fact just shut up. They know far more than we will ever know...just ask them.
6 people like this.
These farms are cleared rainforest, so whether they are burning more rainforest or farms does not recognize the fact that the rainforests were destroyed to make these farms, which are quite environmentally devastating as the (minimal) nutrients in the soil are used up and then they move on to clear more rainforest. The land does not recover. While the article shows a graphic that indicates the deforestation has declined considerably, it is still happening. This is not A Good Thing.
1 person likes this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Moritz55 8/24/2019 4:24:49 PM (No. 161225)
This is a relief! Even in Colombia, where the press isn’t nearly as leftist or alarmist as here (go figure!), the reports have been pretty scary. My student didn’t know what to make of it or why neither government was intervening. Mystery solved. Now the question is why the European Union (who should also have accurate information) is threatening to pull out of treaty negotiations over this.
5 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
govlawyer 8/24/2019 4:29:17 PM (No. 161235)
Wrong Amazon burning.....oh well.
8 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Historybuff 8/24/2019 4:37:23 PM (No. 161241)
Visit the places burned in 2 years. The Rain Forest (aka Jungle) will have reclaimed it.
As far as the "lungs of the world" and Oxygen supplier, loo to the worlds oceans. Oh, and the Pacific ocean is the largest producer of CO2 on this planet.
4 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
StephaniePlum 8/24/2019 4:42:49 PM (No. 161243)
My local loonies are encouraging everyone to stop eating beef because they have read that these fires are started by loggers and ranchers clearing land for grazing cattle. I’m not sure how not eating beef in California is going to impact the fires in the Amazon, but this is their brand of logic regarding every “crisis”. We Have To Do SOMETHING !!!
4 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Strike3 8/24/2019 7:29:30 PM (No. 161353)
NPR had a guest "scientist" on who claimed he has spent his entire career studying rainforests. He was panicked to the point that he was shaking. The world soon is going to run out of oxygen.
1 person likes this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Kate318 8/24/2019 9:14:08 PM (No. 161397)
With all due respect, #2, the land does indeed recover. Traditional Chinese Medicine has known for over 5,000 years that ash feeds the earth. Anytime a human being tells you that something in nature is irreversibly damaged, know that they do not understand Nature at her most basic level.
4 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
wildcat1 8/25/2019 1:27:27 AM (No. 161459)
The corn crop in Iowa converts more CO2 to O2 than the Amazon rain forest.
1 person likes this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
SueDotSue 8/25/2019 5:01:21 AM (No. 161471)
All complete scam. First, NASA Earth Observatory, NASA.gov says as of 8/22/19 that 2019 fires are same as past 15 years of fire seasons (July-Aug). NASA even mentions that it's customary for some land to be burned by farmers for various reasons-it's not new. Second, the picture Macron tweeted is a fake. It was re-sent 40,000 times and used by NY Times. The photographer who took the photo died in 2003. Third, if Macron wants to talk about 'lungs,' the Amazon 's lungs are 40 million tons of nutrient-rich Sahara dust that are driven yearly across the Atlantic by naturally occurring high winds and deposited on the ground in the Amazon. That sounds like proof that the Amazon re-generates. Nothing is going to stop 40 million tons of nutrient rich Sahara dust.
1 person likes this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
toddh 8/25/2019 10:37:32 AM (No. 161611)
Just like the CO2 in carbonated beverages, the carbon has not been *sequestered* for millions of years and then released in decades and centuries.
Oh, and stuff grows back, taking the CO2 right back out of the air.
As far as global warming, climate change, and science fiction are concerned, a forest fire is a climatalogical non-issue. It's a short carbon cycle. A tree can absorb CO2 *as it burns* so in some cases we're talking about minutes between capture and release. Mostly we're talking decades, and a few centuries.
Plants grow back, absorbing CO2 and emitting O2 as they do so. This particular forest has shrunk during the Oligocene, during the last glacial maximum, and so on, growing back each time. It is older than the Andes.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
jacksin5 8/25/2019 12:10:36 PM (No. 161748)
This is what's known as "Slash and Burn" farming. The land is nutrient poor so this technique is used for farming until the soil is exhausted of nutrients, then the farmer moves and repeats the process elsewhere. The farmers are dirt-poor (no pun intended) and have no money or access to proper farming methods or fertilizers. To restore the land, seed with nitrogen-rich plants, or spread fertilizer and give the land back to Nature.
2 people like this.
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