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Record number of environmental activists murdered

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Record number of environmental activists murdered

#3
How does this compare to the growth in the number of environmental activists overall?

Edit: it was pointed out below that it's probably more influenced by an increase in environmentally damaging activities such as logging.

Edit 2: Yes, I think that murdering peaceful, innocent protestors is a disgusting act. I'm just questioning the article's use of statistics

Re: Record number of environmental activists murdered

#5

How does this compare to the growth in the number of environmental activists overall? Edit: it was pointed out below that it's probably more influenced by an increase in environmentally damaging activities such as logging. Edit 2: Yes, I think that murdering peaceful, innocent protestors is a disgusting act. I'm just questioning the article's use of statistics

[deleted]

Re: Record number of environmental activists murdered

#7

How does this compare to the growth in the number of environmental activists overall? Edit: it was pointed out below that it's probably more influenced by an increase in environmentally damaging activities such as logging. Edit 2: Yes, I think that murdering peaceful, innocent protestors is a disgusting act. I'm just questioning the article's use of statistics

This is murder, not people falling off the cliff because of some accidents.

There is probably nothing logically wrong with that question, and you are probably right that there is a correlation. But... seriously?

Re: Record number of environmental activists murdered

#8
post #7

How does this compare to the growth in the number of environmental activists overall? Edit: it was pointed out below that it's probably more influenced by an increase in environmentally damaging activities such as logging. Edit 2: Yes, I think that murdering peaceful, innocent protestors is a disgusting act. I'm just questioning the article's use of statistics

This is murder, not people falling off the cliff because of some accidents. There is probably nothing logically wrong with that question, and you are probably right that there is a correlation. But... seriously?

Yes, seriously. Number one failure in sensationalized reporting is base rate fallacy: they point out a high absolute number, implying something strange is going on, whereas usually the denominator - which they neglect to mention - has rose proportionally, meaning there's nothing newsworthy there.

I don't mean this is the case here (I'm yet to read the article itself) - but this failure mode in reporting is so common that it's a good habit to immediately look for / question lack of base rate data.

Re: Record number of environmental activists murdered

#9
post #4

I know we're not drawing from a random distribution here, but presumably, the number of environmentalists has also risen dramatically in recent years.

How would that lead to more killings? It is not like activists come with an innate probability to be killed because of their work.
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