The Simple Economics of Saving the Amazon Rain Forest (Ep. 428)

  • Date: 30-Jul-2020
  • Source: Freakonomics
  • Sector:Economy
  • Country:Oman
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The Simple Economics of Saving the Amazon Rain Forest (Ep. 428)

Everyone agrees that massive deforestation is an environmental disaster. But most of the standard solutions “” scolding the Brazilians, invoking universal morality “” ignore the one solution that might actually work.

Listen and subscribe to our podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or elsewhere. Below is a transcript of the episode, edited for readability. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, see the links at the bottom of this post.

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This is Steve Levitt. Dubner has taken the week off and handed the microphone over to me, and that gives me the chance to investigate something that's really been troubling me. It seems like ages ago with all that has happened since, but do you remember the headlines back last summer?

ANCHOR: Fires are raging across Brazil's Amazon rain forest. 

ANCHOR: The world's largest rain forest is being destroyed at an alarming rate. 

ANCHOR: Much of the blame is being heaped on Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsanaro.

I'd never given much thought to the Amazon rain forest. All the media coverage, though, of the wildfires got me wondering. Is it really true that the Amazon rain forest is being destroyed? Should I be upset about that happening, or is it no big deal?