False Reports of Amazon Fires Mislead, Undermine Trust

The latest climate-change disaster du jour was the lead story in many newsfeeds and headlines around the globe. The report that the Amazon was burning at unprecedented rates due to man-made global warming was tailor-made for the climate-catastrophe crowd to promote fear of impending planet-wide doom.

The reliably alarmist CNN headline was “Amazon rainforest burning at record rate,” while over at the New York Daily News, the writer declared, “The Amazon rainforest is burning. Be afraid.” Most reporting included some variation on the theme that “the lungs of the world are burning.”

In a tweet, French President Emmanuel Macron called upon world leaders to place the fires in the Amazon at the top of their agenda when they meet for the Group of Seven summit: “Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rainforest—the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen—is on fire.”