This is the first in a series by Cornwall Alliance Senior Fellow Roy W. Spencer, Ph.D. (Meteorology), Principal Research Scientist, University of Alabama at Huntsville, exposing media bias in reporting about climate change. This first appeared as part of a longer article by Dr. Spencer on his blog.
A few days ago, The Guardian announced Large swathes of the Amazon rainforest are burning. I don’t know how this has suddenly entered the public’s consciousness, but for those of us who keep track of such things, farmland and some rainforest in Amazonia and adjacent lands has been burned by farmers for many decades during this time of year so they can plant crops. This year is not exceptional in this regard, yet someone decided to make an issue of it this year. In fact, it looks like 2019 might be one of the lowest years for biomass burning. Deforestation there has gone down dramatically in the last 20 years.
The rainforest itself does not burn in response to global warming, and in fact warming in the tropics has been so slow that it is unlikely that any tropical resident would perceive it in their lifetime. This is not a climate change issue; it’s a farming and land use issue.
Photo by Maxim Tajer on Unsplash.
Gloria Watkins says
My first visit to your website and am so glad to be here. Thank you to all your people who count it valuable to bring forth truth that can dispell the lies present in our culture today.
It was a comfort to read about the real reason for fires in the Amazon.
Richard Masters says
To my knowledge, no one is suggesting that the Amazon basin is burning due to climate change – as you undoubtedly know. People who actually care about the environment and believe in science are concerned about burning Amazonia, because the forests there are critical to removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and generating oxygen that we all breathe. I realize that your only aim is to downplay the seriousness of the existential threat we face. Hence the phony strawman argument about WHY environmentalists are concerned about the fires in Brazil.