Water surface area lost by Brazil

Spotted in La Prensa Latina, a southern US-based newspaper.

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 23 (EFE).- Brazil, the world’s main water reserve, has lost over three million hectares of its water surface area in 30 years, MapBiomas reported Monday.

From 1991 to 2020, the freshwater area in Brazil decreased from 19.7 million hectares to 16.6 million hectares, representing a 15.7% drop. It is an area equivalent to the size of Belgium.

Editor’s Note

This appears to be a typical case of a Belgium comparison appearing in a newspaper whose readers are unlikely to be familiar with Belgium.

The original report by MapBiomas – a Brazilian ecological initiative – did not mention Belgium. In Spain the agency EFE picked up the report and added the Belgium comparison.

The newspaper in Tennessee ran the EFE story including with the unhelpful (although accurate) Belgium measurement.

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