[vfc1]

When the Amazon turns into a savannah well into our lifetime, we will see how this stuff looks like historically.

I suspect though that the attention that the press is giving to this year's fires, which are catastrophic and need attention, has something to do with the fact that Brasil is about to sign a historic trade agreement with the EU and this is being used to politically pressure Brasil into stopping the increasing deforestation.

Which I'm all for it, I get it that it's politics and that's how it works, I just don't like the manipulation.

[fwsgonzo]

The "manipulation" to stop destroying the planet? To me its all about the accelerated logging in the amazon basin that we know is fatal.

[vfc1]

Have a look, logging is only 3%, the rest is cattle ranching and agriculture (most of it to produce cattle feed) - https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/2019/08/d...

I agree it's necessary to force Brasil's hand to take some immediate action, but I just don't like these tactics. What else is in the news for similar type of reasons?

[EugeneOZ]

No. This year Russia lost 3 times more forest and nobody cares :) All the noise is just about politics.

[pvaldes]

A hectare of forest lost in brazil is not equivalent to an hectare lost in Taiga. Biodiversity in taiga is not even remotely close to the biodiversity in rainforests.

There are decens of different species of trees, giving fruits, supporting bromeliads, hundreds of orchids, arboreal frogs, monkeys, sloths, macrobats, snails, spiders, scorpions, thousands of different insects, snakes, hundred of birds, raptors, lizards, thousands of different fishes also in the flooded soil ... You will never find that in a taiga's pine. Taiga is a frozen void desert for many months of the year (and has been devoid of most of this former macrofauna yet).

Is not always about politics.

[EugeneOZ]

Yeah, forest is "frozen void", lol. And each summer it's so "cold" there, that's why forest is in fire every year.

Macron says nothing about "biodiversity", he is talking about oxygen. And forest in Siberia makes the same oxygen (maybe just with small scent of vodka). So in this case is just politics.

[aliveupstairs]

Any sources on that?

[sebazzz]

Regardless of the consequences, I'd be a more at rest knowing the ones responsible will be prosecuted. However, based on history we will know this will probably not happen.