Thursday, 22 August 2019

Why you won’t see much news about the devastating Amazon rainforest fires on Google News

quote [ The Amazon rainforest is burning—but Google News just wants to tell you about Amazon.com’s tablet. ]

The planet is on fucking fire

Right now, if you search for news about the massive fires burning in the Amazon rainforest, you might mostly find stories about the Amazon Fire line of tablets and streaming devices.

The search results come at a critical time for the rainforest. Smoke from the fires, which as of this afternoon cover huge swaths of the Amazon basin, completely blotted out the midday sun in Sao Paulo this week, darkening the city at 2:00pm on Monday (Aug. 19). According to Brazil’s state satellite agency, the number of fires in the Amazon so far this year is up 85% compared to the same period last year. About half of this year’s blazes have occurred in the last 20 days.

Meanwhile, many of the headlines in Google News highlight “midweek deals” on older models of Amazon’s Fire tablet and reviews of the latest version of the device. Searches for both “amazon fire” and “fire in the amazon” on Aug. 21 turned up news stories about the products rather than the fires; in one search, news stories about the ongoing Amazonian fires didn’t appear until the second page of Google News results.

Amazon Watch, one prominent NGO dedicated to advancing the rights of indigenous people living in the Amazon basin, has called on Jeff Bezos and his company to direct some efforts towards protecting its namesake ecosystem in the past. (Bezos installed a model “rainforest” in Amazon’s Seattle headquarters last year.)

The rainforest has suffered ongoing deforestation over the last 50 years, with about one-fifth of the ecosystem cut and burned to make way for logging, ranching, or mining. The fires burning in the Amazon basin are likely set by people in an attempt to clear land for cattle ranching.

Ranchers, loggers, and miners have reportedly been emboldened by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s open disdain for conservation, and his support for using the rainforest for industry. Hundreds of thousands of indigenous people in more than 400 tribes live in the Amazon, and many already struggle to protect their land from illegal invasion. “We know what happens when the state does nothing,” Marcelino Da Silva, a member of the Apurinã tribe in the Brazilian Amazon, told the Intercept last month. “We know how quickly the forest can disappear.”

Deforestation has accelerated in recent years, reaching a peak last month at a rate of more than three football fields a minute, leading scientists to publicly worry that it could be approaching a tipping point; past a certain point of deforestation, the rainforest could be in jeopardy of degrading into a savannah.

Every section of the rainforest lost means losing natural carbon sinks; the greenhouse gas locked up by the forest’s biomass is instead released into the atmosphere, accelerating global climate change. Losing it also means losing the habitats for numerous threatened plant and animal species, many of which can only be found in the biodiverse Amazon.
[SFW] [environment & nature] [+3]
[by slaytanik@3:41pmGMT]

Comments

steele said @ 7:19pm GMT on 22nd Aug [Score:2]
Ankylosaur said @ 7:40pm GMT on 22nd Aug [Score:2 Underrated]
That's what you get for making a monkey's paw your god.
5th Earth said @ 4:44pm GMT on 22nd Aug [Score:1 Underrated]
Read the article twice. It didn't answer the fucking question.
Hugh E. said @ 5:21pm GMT on 22nd Aug
tl;dr: $
rylex said @ 9:08pm GMT on 22nd Aug
it did. answer is "because google is evil"
ComposerNate said[2] @ 5:11pm GMT on 22nd Aug
Stop eating cows.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/amazon-fires-what-you-should-know_n_5d5e1096e4b02cc97c883718

Rainforest is literally being lit as a means to clear land for cattle production illegally.
C18H27NO3 said @ 3:42pm GMT on 27th Aug
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-trade-war-china-brazil-amazon-rainforest-fires_n_5d649783e4b008b1fd1fcf09

Or soy beans legally.
ComposerNate said @ 6:01pm GMT on 27th Aug
Yes, also soy beans which feed cattle
spazm said @ 8:34pm GMT on 22nd Aug
There’s some coverage over here in Europe, or at least in the Netherlands. Coincidentally, Amazon (the company) hasn’t really got a strong foot in our country, so perhaps that explains.
throatstabber said @ 5:03pm GMT on 24th Aug
Last I read, the Amazon fires had "burned" about 7200 square miles, that number spans several countries in what is one of the largest forests in the world. Compare that to the area burned in British Columbia alone last year, 5300 square miles. I'm not saying that it's a good thing for there to be massive forest fires all over the world, but I will say that perhaps this is just another sensationalized story. You sure as shit didn't see the world up in arms trying to save the various ecosystems that exist in BC's forests. Fires happen, they always have, and there is evidence to support the idea that putting them out is not in the planet's - and ultimately our own - best interests. It's funny how nobody gave a shit about the plight of the Amazonian farmer until this happened. Now somehow they are the bad guys for what is actually a much broader and global problem.

Post a comment
[note: if you are replying to a specific comment, then click the reply link on that comment instead]

You must be logged in to comment on posts.



Posts of Import
Karma
SE v2 Closed BETA
First Post
Subscriptions and Things

Karma Rankings
ScoobySnacks
HoZay
Paracetamol
lilmookieesquire
Ankylosaur