> I'd not done this until just now, and frankly, it appears that last year's smoke activity was actually greater
Someone linked to a NASA page a few days ago that said the same thing.
"As of August 16, 2019, satellite observations indicated that total fire activity in the Amazon basin was slightly below average in comparison to the past 15 years".
http://web.archive.org/web/20190820090023/https://earthobser...
Since the news story broke they have updated it, saying it was updated to clarify sources yet they substantially changed what they have said:
"Editor’s Note: This story was updated on 22 August 2019 to clarify our data source."
The live page now reads:
"As of August 16, 2019, an analysis of NASA satellite data indicated that total fire activity across the Amazon basin this year has been close to the average in comparison to the past 15 years. "
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145464/fires-in-bra...
I would have been a lot more honest to say "we incorrectly stated that fires were below average and have updated our position".