A blueprint for communicating about the Amazon rainforest (commentary)

I recently contributed a section on how to communicate about the Amazon for the “Amazonia in Danger” report, a collection of 22 articles written by 55 authors from different fields. The effort, organized by the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA), was published last week in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Here’s a brief summary of my contribution. From doom to agency: Talking about saving Amazonia Many stories about the Amazon read like elegies. Drought, smoke, lawlessness—each headline darker than the last. I’m guilty of this at times. The problem is not that these stories exaggerate; it’s that they leave most readers stranded between grief and guilt. Doom, however accurate, can demobilize. The question is how to move the story from despair to agenc