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<\/a><\/p>\nThe 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.<\/span><\/p>\n The reliably alarmist CNN headline was \u201cAmazon rainforest burning at record rate<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,\u201d while over at the New York Daily News, the writer declared, \u201cThe Amazon rainforest is burning. Be afraid<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.\u201d Most reporting included some variation on the theme that \u201cthe lungs of the world are burning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In a tweet<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, 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: \u201cOur house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rainforest<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u2014the lungs which produces 20% of our planet\u2019s oxygen\u2014is on fire<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The source of this alarm is an ostensibly reliable source, Brazil\u2019s National Institute for Space Research<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. However, a closer look reveals some real problems with the data.<\/span><\/p>\n First, the satellite fire data referenced only began in 2013, so six years of data is hardly long enough to make statements about \u201crecord breaking\u201d in any context. Secondly, the satellite data collected wasn\u2019t intended to be used as a counting tool for number of fires, but rather as a readiness alert system to identify fires before they rage out of control. It turns out that the same fire might be counted more than once to ensure that none are missed.<\/span><\/p>\n Likely the most shared image of the \u201cdevastation\u201d was a NASA satellite image<\/strong><\/span><\/a> across most of the Amazon showing smoke from fires in many areas. What was not shared was the caption NASA provided, which states, in part, \u201cAs of August 16, 2019, an analysis of NASA satellite data indicated that total fire activity across the Amazon basin this year has been close to the average in comparison to the past 15 years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n According to NASA\u2019s Global Fire Emissions Database<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, activity is above average in the states of Amazonas and Rondonia, but so far is below average in Mato Grosso and Par\u00e1. The overall numbers are pretty much in line with historic data that goes back to 2003, much longer than the Brazilian data and with satellite data analysis specifically designed to do the task of counting the fires rather than simply alerting government personnel of danger.<\/span><\/p>\n A little background on Amazon fire is in order to put these yearly fires in perspective. The fire season in the Amazon begins with the dry season in late July and peaks in mid-September before ending in November. Nearly all of the fires are intentionally set because dry lightning strikes are rare and it\u2019s difficult to begin a fire in a damp rainforest.<\/span><\/p>\n