The Amazon rainforest, commonly and accurately referred to as Earth’s lungs, is on fire.
The blazes have spilled over into neighbouring nations including Bolivia.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, doesn’t seem too concerned.
He had, after all, targeted Indigenous people — who he clearly sees as nothing more than an annoying obstacle on the path to plundering and pillaging natural resources for profit — with great contempt and disdain during the country’s election campaign.
When questioned by a journalist about a comment he’d previously made to another reporter about refusing to cede a single centimetre to tribes and their reserves, he “corrected” himself to “clarify“ he had “misspoke” and should have said he would never give them a “millimetre."
When his administration was handed the reins of power in January, Bolsonaro’s government wasted precious little time rolling back environmental protections and prioritizing the expansion of agriculture and business interests.
Goes to show how much this so-called leader cares about the rainforest and the tribes that call it home.
Under his brief time in power, satellite imaging has shown a substantial surge in wanton burning of the Amazon rainforest, even leading to numerous world leaders declaring the unfolding situation to be an international environmental crisis.
A BBC analysis also revealed that as the number of fires burning down the Amazon rainforest increases to record levels, the number of fines doled out for environmental crimes is down substantially.
And despite declaring his country does not have the resources to adequately police such a huge swath of land, Bolsonaro has stubbornly refused to allow international aid, even though the G7 pledged some $20 million, arguably a paltry sum when compared with the many billions that were within days promised to restore the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.
He has, however, ramped up dismissive rhetoric as he attempts to downplay the situation, even at one point taking a page right out of the populist authoritarian’s playbook by going so far as to suggest — without a shred of evidence — that environmentalists were responsible for starting the fires, just to make him look bad. Because apparently, every eco activist’s dream is to watch the very rainforests they strive to protect burn to the ground.
Most of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil. While the nation’s sovereignty should of course be respected, there must also be recognition that what happens in the world’s largest rainforest has global ramifications.
International pressure is the only course of action that will persuade Bolsonaro — only after EU leaders threatened to cancel a trade deal with Latin America did he finally mobilize Brazil’s army to respond to the fires.
So while I’m glad our federal government has pledged help, which has unfortunately been rejected, our leaders at every level and on either side of the political spectrum should be unapologetically clear about their unequivocal condemnation of the Brazilian government’s apparent indifference in the face of environmental catastrophe.
This all reminds me of an old Greek proverb.
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
So what does that say about a society that idly stands by and watches as one of our planet’s most precious resources is allowed to burn?
