I was waiting for an article like this - I've been through enough new cycles to know that the Amazon hysteria was probably not warranted. Didn't help that people were sharing photos en mass of fires that were very clearly *not* the Amazon lol...
Anyway. Thoughts on this piece? No paywall.
@Elmkast Thanks for sharing this link! I had been low-key freaking out about the Amazon for days. I literally lie awake at night panicking about the planet dying, so stuff like this really gets to me.
Having historical perspective on the scope of this year's fires has drastically improved my mood, thanks.
I wish more news coverage (on all issues!) would include historical context like that chart of fires over time. When reporting something as exceptional at least tell us what the baseline is!
@Elmkast Found a non-paywalled version of the science paper that is the source for that 70% claim
"Enforcement of laws,
interventions in soy and beef supply chains, restrictions on access to credit, and
expansion of protected areas appear to have contributed to this decline, as did a decline
in the demand for new deforestation"
haven't finished it yet but what I've read is very interesting.
@nindokag @Elmkast Some victories to celebrate: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/01/01/what-happened-to-90s-environmentalism/
I see like five articles a day about the increasingly grim and desperate climate news and whether there's any way to change course before we trigger various tipping points and render the earth uninhabitable to humans.
For slatestarcodex to write a whole article about "how come you never hear about the environment any more?" and not even have a section about global warming... What planet is he living on? because I would like to go there.
@Elmkast
I also wish the environmental movement would celebrate its victories instead of being all-negative all the time.
Like, this: "Deforestation declined a whopping 70% from 2004 to 2012. It has risen modestly since then but remains at one-quarter its 2004 peak."
That's an amazing achievement! Why have I never heard about it? Why aren't we all talking more about what strategies worked so well from 2004-2012 and how to replicate them elsewhere?