Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron have called the Amazon rainforest fires an international emergency, prompting a furious response from Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro.
The French government today accused Bolsonaro of lying to Macron at the G20 Summit in June over his commitments to the environment after the worst fires since records began.
‘Given the attitude of Brazil over the last weeks, the president can only conclude that President Bolsonaro lied to him at the Osaka summit,’ a French presidential official said
It followed a war of words over Twitter between the pair last night with Macron calling the fires an international emergency that required an urgent meeting of G7 leaders in France this weekend. Brazil is not a G7 member.
Bolsonaro called the suggestion an outdated ‘colonialist mindset in the 21st century.’
Today German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed Macron, saying the Amazon’s wildfires were an ‘acute emergency’ which belonged on the G7 agenda.
Macron tweeted last night: ‘Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest – the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen – is on fire.’ He accompanied the post with a stock photo of fires from February 2018.
Bolsonaro fired back his own, saying: ‘I regret that Macron seeks to make personal political gains in an internal matter for Brazil and other Amazonian countries. The sensationalist tone he used does nothing to solve the problem …
‘The French President’s suggestion that Amazonian issues be discussed at the G7 without the participation of the countries of the region evokes a misplaced colonialist mindset in the 21st century.’
.
Satellite images show colossal scorched sections of the Amazon forest in Brazil’s Para state as smoke pours across the jungle on Tuesday
Images from space show huge swathes of the forest have been turned brown by fires as they continue to rage in Nova Bandeirantes state, Brazil
Raging fires tear through the rainforest in streams of burning light last Saturday night amid the worst fires since records began. Macron claims it is an international emergency
Rio Branco Firemen tackle fires in the Amazon forest near Rio Branco, Amazonian State of Acre last Saturday
French President Emmanuel Macron called for an urgent meeting of the G7 in France this weekend and Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro accused him of sensationalism (Macron and Bolsonaro attend the G20 in Osaka earlier this month)
A map showing every fire that’s started across Brazil since August 13, 2019. Bolsonaro continues to downplay concerns and says it is normal for the dry-season
Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar announced today Dublin would stand with Macron in blocking the EU trade deal with Mercosur unless Bolsonaro got a grip on the infernos.
‘There is no way that Ireland will vote for the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement if Brazil does not honour its environmental commitments,’ he said.
Onyx Lorenzoni, the president’s chief of staff, earlier in the day accused European countries of exaggerating environmental problems in Brazil in order to disrupt its commercial interests.
‘There is deforestation in Brazil, yes, but not at the rate and level that they say,’ said Lorenzoni, according to the Brazilian news website globo.com.
In the last eight days more than 9,500 fires have ripped through Brazil’s dense rainforest and activists claim most of them will have been set by men working in the jungle, clearing land for cattle and logging.
Despite Bolsonaro’s claims that uncontrollable blazes are frequent during the ‘queimada’, the annual slash-and-burn, experts say an 84% increase on last year cannot be attributed to the dry season alone.
Last week local media reported that a ‘fire day’ had been declared by farmers in Para as a direct response to Bolsonaro.
Brasil de Fato reported the organiser said: ‘We need to show the president that we want to work and the only way is to knock it down. And to form and clear our pastures, it is with fire.’
Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said the country has seen a record number of wildfires this year, counting 74,155 as of Tuesday. Bolsonaro took office on Jan. 1.
The news comes as leaked documents purported to show Bolsonaro had plans to deliberately isolate indigenous people in the jungle and build hydroelectric plants which will devastate an area the size of Greater Manchester.
One leaked Power Point slide says: ‘Development projects must be implemented on the Amazon basin to integrate it into the rest of the national territory in order to fight off international pressure for the implementation of the so-called ‘Triple A’ project.
Macron’s tweet was accompanied by a stock image of the rainforest which can be traced to an article from February 2018
A map showing the emissions hot-spots detected by the World Meteorological Agency over Brazil and the rest of South America on Thursday
Indigenous people from the Mura tribe walk in a deforested area in nondemarcated indigenous land inside the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State on Tuesday
Huge clouds of smoke can be seen drifting from the northern Brazilian states of Amazonas, Para, Mato Grosso and Rondonia down through its borders with Bolivia, Chile and Peru as the fires which have raged since the beginning of the year continue
Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Rondonia State on Wednesday
Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State on Saturday
A logger takes stock in the jungle near Humaita, Amazonas State (loggers and ranchers have been accused of devastating the jungle in an unprecedented way)
‘To do this, it is necessary to build the Trombetas River hydroelectric plant, the Óbidos bridge over the Amazon River, and the implementation of the BR-163 highway to the border with Suriname.’
Several NGOs back the Triple A (Andes-Amazon-Atlantic) project, which aims to restore and maintain the ecosystem which flourishes around the Amazon rainforest.
The leaked documents claim that Brazil is being put under threat by globalist forces which would seek to encourage indigenous people to rise up against the government.
His administration announced on Wednesday it would forge ahead with plans for two new hydroelectric dams which will cause flooding across vast swathes of the rainforest.
In a list of new projects was the Bem Querer plant in Roraima and the Tabajara plant in Rondonia. Neither of the projects has environmental licensing, and the Bem Querer proposal also poses risks to indigenous lands.
They would cause the destruction and flooding of 152,711 acres of rainforest, according to Estadao, around the same size as Greater Manchester.
A colossal deforested tract of the jungle near Humaita, Amazonas State on Thursday (critics accuse Bolsonaro of enabling vast destruction)
Smoke spews from the top of the high jungle trees in the Amazon on Wednesday amid a recent spate of fires which have caused international concern
Smoke ascends through the canopy of the rainforest near Porto Velho, Rondonia State on Wednesday
Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State earlier this month
Indigenous people from the Mura tribe shows a deforested area in unmarked indigenous lands inside the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State on Tuesday
Bolsonaro’s spat with Macron comes after Germany and Norway, citing Brazil’s apparent lack of commitment to fighting deforestation, decided to withhold more than $60 million in funds earmarked for sustainability projects in Brazilian forests.
The debate came as Brazilian federal experts reported a record number of wildfires across the country this year, up 84 percent over the same period in 2018.
Satellite images show smoke from the Amazon reaching across the Latin American continent to the Atlantic coast and Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted: ‘In the midst of the global climate crisis, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity. The Amazon must be protected.’
Federal prosecutors in Brazil’s Amazon region launched investigations of increasing deforestation, according to local media. Prosecutors said they plan to probe possible negligence by the national government in the enforcement of environmental codes.
Smoke streams above the burning forest near Porto Velho, Rondonia State on Wednesday
Smoke pours up from the burning forest near Porto Velho, Rondonia State on Wednesday
Bolivia is also struggling to contain big fires, many believed to have been set by farmers clearing land for cultivation.
Bolsonaro said there was a ‘very strong’ indication that some non-governmental groups could be setting blazes in retaliation for losing state funds under his administration. He did not provide any evidence.
Bolsonaro, who won election last year, also accused media organizations of exploiting the fires to undermine his government.
‘Most of the media wants Brazil to end up like Venezuela,’ he said, referring to political and economic turbulence in the neighboring South American country.
London-based Amnesty International blamed the Brazilian government for the fires, which have escalated international concern over the vast rainforest that is a major absorber of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The rights group this year documented illegal land invasions and arson attacks near indigenous territories in the Amazon, including Rondonia state, where many fires are raging, said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty’s secretary general.
‘Instead of spreading outrageous lies or denying the scale of deforestation taking place, we urge the president to take immediate action to halt the progress of these fires,’ Naidoo said.
The WWF conservation group also challenged Bolsonaro’s allegations about NGOs, saying they divert ‘the focus of attention from what really matters: the well-being of nature and the people of the Amazon.’
Brazil contains about 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest, whose degradation could have severe consequences for global climate and rainfall. Bolsonaro, who has said he wants to convert land for cattle pastures and soybean farms, won office after channeling outrage over the corruption scandals of the former government.
An tract of Amazon jungle burning as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state on Tuesday
Flames are seen along the BR364 highway in Guajara-Mirim, Rondonia, northern Brazil last Wednesday
A tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil on Wednesday
Filipe Martins, an adviser to Bolsonaro, said on Twitter that the Brazilian government is committed to fighting illegal deforestation and that many other countries are causing environmental damage.
The Amazon will be saved by Brazil and not ‘the empty, hysterical and misleading rhetoric of the mainstream media, transnational bureaucrats and NGOs,’ Martins said.
Sergio Bergman, Argentina’s environment minister, appealed for people to overcome political or ideological divisions to protect the environment. He spoke at a five-day U.N. workshop on climate change in Brazil’s northern state of Bahia.
‘We all, in a way, understand that it is not possible to keep using natural resources without limits,’ Bergman said.