[lobocinza]

The wildfires are devastating and like nothing I've seem before. Yet if deforestation is solely to blame then why countries with much less forest coverage have less of a problem? Brazil forest coverage: 60%, EU: 39%, US: 33%.

Every time I read such news I have a feeling I'm being fed a lazy political narrative rather than the complex truth. WaPo certainly benefits from the views from the "climate doom" crowd at the expense of their mental health and there will be no improvement because the crowd is ignorant and powerless.

[matheusmoreira]

> I have a feeling I'm being fed a lazy political narrative rather than the complex truth

No doubt.

The Amazon is just a political weapon to criticize governments with. Last president was directly blamed for these fires by a lot of people, locally and abroad, they even spoke of sanctions. These same people are eerily silent now that the fires are worse and the communist in power is doing pretty much nothing about it. There are zero mentions of him and his people in TFA, so you're probably right that it's just a climate doom article, not about actually changing anything or piling on political pressure on anyone in particular. Nobody really cares, it's just a political weapon used by international think tanks to influence things here.

The simplest truth is nobody really cares about that jungle. Least of all the brazilian government which has much more important things to take care of such as crushing the population with taxes to cover the exorbitant costs of such vital and necessary things as the president and his wife's year long tourism, useless made up positions for allies and supporters as well as regaling the rising judge-kings of the judiciary. There's also the fact these burns are caused by actually valuable economic activity. This country is basically China's private soy farm, nobody's about to screw with the guys doing the farming.

If you gave me a button that burned down the entire Amazon and made a semiconductor industry magically show up in its place, I wouldn't even think twice before pushing it.

[lobocinza]

> If you gave me a button that burned down the entire Amazon and made a semiconductor industry magically show up in its place, I wouldn't even think twice before pushing it.

I wouldn't. It would be a really bad deal.

It's not like the article is wrong. There is a link between deforestation and droughts. Droughts and heat waves are becoming more severe and common in Brazil. The point is that the well was poisoned. Mainstream environmentalism was contaminated with politics so it's pointless to engage with it as it will accomplished nothing by design. It doesn't make sense to waste time and sacrifice your mental sanity for nothing.