Are Beef Cows Making the Amazon Burn?

We've heard a lot about the Amazon Rainforest in the news recently.

"The lungs of the world are burning!"

Well, first off, they really aren't the lungs of the world. And the amount of fires this year in the Brazilian Amazon is actually slightly BELOW the 20 year average for fires by this time of year. So why are we hearing about it now?

We're hearing about it because the media are famous for histrionics and over-simplification of complex ecological issues.

Having no oxygen might scare us, but it's not true. It might get our attention, but it's a lie.

What we need to worry about is having too much carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. It's not our lungs that should be the focus of the Amazon. It's the burning trees.