I didn't take that as an emotional appeal. If it was that, I would think they'd use a more charged expression ("die needlessly") instead of an industry euphemism ("depopulated").

When has the general public responded better to accuracy over emotions? We've been told for years and in ever greater detail that environment is dying and we won't do anything about it, but we see a video of a turtle suffering because it has a plastic straw stuck in its nose and it's a major legislative issue.