Traditional and social media have gone crazy covering the Amazon fires this week, and the images and video like those we shared are compelling. But there's a lot of misinformation out there, and there is some good news: It may not be as bad as some in the media are reporting. This is serious stuff! We need to stick to the science. Here are five things that the media (which rarely gets it right on science) aren't telling you:
The Earth is burning, but it always has been.
Thousands of fires are continually burning across the Earth every day of every year, and they always have. They have an animation of the last 20 years of this data. You won't see much of a change, except that fires are worse in some areas and better in others from year to year. The map below shows September 2000 vs. 2018. They look about the same to me.
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