I’m sure that most fans are aware that Daniel Bryan’s environmentalist “Planet’s Champion” gimmick is more than just a gimmick, it’s a projection of Bryan Danielson’s real life priorities. Still, while his steadfast environmentalism has often been a plot point on Total Divas and Total Bellas, working for a company like WWE rarely gives Bryan the chance to really speak up about relevant issues. He did get that chance, however, when a recent interviewer asked him about the wildfires that are currently destroying vast swaths of the Amazon Rainforest.
The Spanish-language wrestling site SuperLuchas asked Daniel Bryan about the Amazon fires, and he had plenty to say:
It’s really sad, because there are apparently hundreds of thousands of indigenous people in the area losing their homes, and not only that, but… It’s hard to say, because I hate talking about politics, but there are people letting everything burn so they can use the land for other things.
As someone who cares about the environment, this whole situation worries me. And it’s about more than just the environmental issue, there’s also the problem of all the people who live in the Amazon rain forest. There are hundreds of thousands of people. They’re trying to move them to the cities, but that’s not how things work. You know what I mean? They’ve been living there for longer than anyone can remember, and now you want them to move to the cities and you expect them to work in factories or something? It is a tragedy and I hope will be under control soon, and that everyone realizes that the Amazon is a central part of the ecosystem.
Bryan has obviously done his reading on the subject, and he went on to talk about the devastating loss of the Amazon’s diverse wildlife.
You know, the diversity of species in the Amazon rain forest is higher than anywhere else in the world, and so much could be lost. There are species that could become extinct, and the interesting part is that we don’t know which species correlate with others, so we can’t just say “These specific species must be saved.” There is, for example, the fungi kingdom, fungi. There is no variety of fungi as large as the one that exists in the Amazon rainforest, and we do not know how many of them are necessary for the planetary ecosystem, because everything causes an impact. We already know the impact caused by the reduction in the number of bees and the danger it represents. However, it is a devastating scenario.
What’s going on in the Amazon Rainforest is very disheartening, but hopefully the addition of voices like Daniel Bryan’s to the conversation can get more people to listen and increase the pressure to resolve the problem.
