Daily Update #1 - "Why Brazilian farmers are burning the rainforest"

As the intentions and politics behind the recent fires surging across the Amazon rain forest

continue to come to the surface, a report by The Washington Post examines the motives behind why Brazilian settlers are actively burning it down, and the difficulty of preventing it further.

In the article, Marina Lopes dives into the evidence for why the fires continue to burn, and boils her main points down to the,“long-standing traditions, practices, [and] laws” of Brazil.  Lopes points out that Bolsonaro “has issued 29.4 percent fewer fines for violations, including illegal burning and deforestation...and through July, deforestation was up 40 percent.” She uses this evidence to support her position that a part of the reason behind the wildfires is due to the political party in power currently, which has allowed Brazilians to once again burn land in a time of deregulation. The culprit behind the fires is still up in the air, as Marina first points out using a quote from Marcos da Rosa that the fires may have been started from “inexperienced settlers, who use fires to clear land without understanding the risks”. However, land hungry farmers could also be at blame, as “reports that more than 70 farmers and loggers used a Whats-app group to organize the Day of Fire on Aug. 10.” Regardless of the party behind the action, Marina was able to back up her opinion of the motives behind the fires using current statistics and primary source interviews.

Lopes was able to successfully craft her argument behind the motives of “why” by pulling and piecing together the facts and quotes from across the story line. She gave the reader a complete feel for the story by talking to people who have expertise in the topic, such as Marcos da Rosa. Lopes is also able to successfully appeal to logos by using cold hard evidence of the moves by the governing body, exemplified by their roll back of environmental regulation. Since the article is being viewed online, she is able to appeal to the idea of pathos through the images of a ravaged forest within the article.

Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/why-brazilian-farmers-are-burning-the-rainforest--and-why-its-difficult-for-bolsonaro-to-stop-them/2019/09/05/3be5fb92-ca72-11e9-9615-8f1a32962e04_story.html