Inflammatory rhetoric fans hysteria and scepticism
Alarmist reporting and post-colonial tut-tutting on the crisis in Brazil’s rainforest has backfired
The good news out of Brazil last week was that the Amazon wildfires may not be as unprecedented or damaging as reported. The bad news was that the misreporting of those fires may have fuelled the climate scepticism and populist nationalism fostered by Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro.
The wildfires story spread on a heady combination of old-media alarmism, new-media anxiety and liberal loathing for a hard-right, populist president.
“Amazon rainforest burning at record ...
