Fires have been raging through the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, said to be the most intense blazes in decades. With #PrayforAmazon trending, celebrities have been taking to social media to draw attention to the issue.
One of the first to post a plea was Hollywood actor and environmentalist Leonardo Dicaprio. In his post he questioned the lack of media attention for the fires, and shared a picture of the same. It, however, turns out the actor fell for an old Alamy stock photo of the fire; the pic he posted is not of the present situation. DiCaprio shared a photo by another Instagram user Nick Rose, who had tagged him in it.
The same picture soon went viral, with many others also sharing the actor's post. It was a undated stock photograph clicked by photographer Loren McIntyre. DiCaprio's post has received over 3 million likes on Instagram.
Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt also ended up sharing some generic pictures.
According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), fires in the Amazon this year have surged by 84 per cent compared to the same time period last year. Coincidentally, this is nearly the amount by which deforestation had gone up between June of 2018 and June of 2019. The volume of smoke from the fires, which was visible from space, points to an unprecedented ecological crisis for the rainforest, which serves as a vital carbon store for the earth as well as home to one in ten of earth’s species.
