With Amazon Rain Forest Ablaze, Brazil Faces Global Backlash

RIO DE JANEIRO — As dozens of fires scorched large swaths of the Amazon, the Brazilian government on Thursday struggled to contain growing global outrage over its environmental policies, which have paved the way for runaway deforestation of the world’s largest rain forest.

The sky in Rio Branco, Brazil, was choked with smoke.
Photos of the fires have set off a call on social media.

The fires, many intentionally set, are spreading as Germany and Norway appear to be on the brink of shutting down a $1.2 billion conservation initiative for the Amazon.

Concern over the environmental policies of President Jair Bolsonaro, which have prioritized the interests of industries that want greater access to protected lands, has also put in jeopardy a trade agreement the European Union and a handful of South American nations struck in June, following decades of negotiations.

Read the story from The New York Times - “With Amazon Rain Forest Ablaze, Brazil Faces Global Backlash.”

Brazil says it lacks resources to fight Amazon wildfires as dispute rages over who is to blame

The Brazilian Government lacks the resources to fight a record number of wildfires burning in the Amazon rainforest, President Jair Bolsonaro said, weeks after telling donors he did not need their money.

Fires in the Amazon have surged 83 per cent so far this year.

The growing threat to what some call "the lungs of the planet" has ignited a bitter dispute about who is to blame during the tenure of a leader who described Brazil's rainforest protections as an obstacle to economic development.

"The Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?" Mr Bolsonaro asked reporters as he left the presidential residence. 

"We do not have the resources for that."

Read the ABC News story - “Brazil says it lacks resources to fight Amazon wildfires as dispute rages over who is to blame.”

Amazon rainforest fires: global leaders urged to divert Brazil from 'suicide' path

International pressure may be the only way to stop the Brazilian government from taking a “suicide” path in the Amazon, one of the country’s most respected scientists has said, as the world’s biggest rainforest continues to be ravaged by thousands of deliberate fires.

A raging fire in Tocantins state - it was Swedish
teenager, Greta Thunberg who said "Our house is
on fire" and no one believed her, maybe they will now.

The large number of conflagrations – set illegally to clear and prepare land for crops, cattle and property speculation – has prompted the state of Amazonas to declare an emergency, created giant smoke clouds that have drifted hundreds of miles, and sparked international concerns about the destruction of an essential carbon sink.

“Our house is burning,” tweeted the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who called for emergency talks on the subject at this week’s G7 summit. But the response to the crisis has been mixed: while Norway and Germany have halted donations to the Brazilian government’s Amazon fund, the EU has recently signed a trade deal with South America, and the UK spent this week focusing on post-Brexit business with Brazil.

Read the story from The Guardian by Jonathon Watts - “Amazon rainforest fires: global leaders urged to divert Brazil from 'suicide' path.”