Remember how the planet's lungs were on fire last year and the wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon were a crisis demanding immediate action and yada yada yada? We already had a go at that topic in our video on the Great Amazon Fire Scare of 2019. Now the matter has finally been laid to rest on the heels of a comprehensive report by the European Space Agency (h/t Electroverse) which concluded the 2019 fire season in Brazil was... average. Or, to be precise, a mere 1.7% above the average of the previous 18 years. But didn't celebrities and world leaders and journalists and so-called experts say it was an unprecedented crisis and proof of the climate emergency? Yes they did. And they were making the whole thing up. Hee hee.

The study shows that Bolivia experienced a 51% increase in the burn area compared to the 2001-2018 average. But next door, Argentina experienced a 49% decline compared to the average. Overall for South America, 2019 was pretty much bang-on the long-term average.

What's more, the study points out that to the extent there is occasionally increased forest fire activity in the region, it is "strongly linked to deforestation and forest degradation." As in, not to greenhouse gases associated with Canadians trying to heat their homes and drive their cars.