Fires in the Amazon: Bolsonaro insinuates that NGOs are responsible
As forest fires progress in the Amazon, tension is mounting in Brazil, where Jair Bolsonaro has hinted that NGOs would be responsible. The Brazilian president has since been under fire.
Impressive pictures of wildfires, apparently in the Amazon, triggered a viral storm on social networks, compounded by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's insinuations that NGOs have sparked fires. The far-right president has attacked NGOs in the wake of the publication of statistics reporting an alarming increase in forest fires in Brazil, especially in the Amazon.
"Our house burns and we look elsewhere"
Monday, August 19, 2019, Sao Paulo, the country's first metropolis, was covered in the middle of the afternoon with a black cloud apparently caused by forest fires thousands of kilometers away. On Twitter, the keyword #PrayforAmazonas (Pray for the Amazon) was the first global trend. Many Internet users were indignant by posting photos and videos showing whole areas of forest devoured by curtains of flames.
"Sixteen days that the Amazon rainforest is burning and no one is aware," lamented a user. "Our house is burning and we are looking elsewhere," another was indignant. But some of the abundantly shared images were ancient, showing for example fires in the Amazon dating back to 1989, or concerning other Brazilian states, or even countries, such as India or the United States. It was not possible to assess Wednesday, August 21, 2019 the extent of areas affected by wildfires in the Amazon.
Bolsonaro insinuates that NGOs could have caused fires
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro insinuated Wednesday, August 21, 2019 that NGOs could have caused the fires that are currently affecting the Amazon to "draw attention" to the suspension by Brasilia of subsidies for the preservation of the "lung of the planet ". "It could be, yes, it could, but I do not affirm, criminal actions of these" ONGéistes "to draw the attention against my person, against the Brazilian government. we are confronted, "the head of state told reporters on leaving his official residence in Brasilia.
Jair Bolsonaro has not provided any evidence to support his serious involvement of NGOs, but said that they "feel the lack of money", after the suspension of funding allocated to the preservation of the Amazon rainforest. "We took the money out of the NGOs, they received 40% of the grants coming from abroad, they no longer have them, and the public subsidies" to NGOs, "he explained. "The fire, apparently, has taken place in strategic locations," he continued. "Even you could not go filming in all the places where it burns, and send (your videos) abroad," he told reporters. "Because everything indicates that they went there to shoot fires, that's how I feel."
"Historically (in Amazonia) fires are directly linked to deforestation"
"Historically (in the Amazon) fires are directly linked to deforestation because it is one of the techniques to clear land," World Wildlife Fund said in a statement about burns to transform forest areas into farming areas. and rearing or cleaning previously deforested areas. According to the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), deforestation in July 2019 was almost four times higher in the same month of 2018.
Conclusions confirmed by Paulo Moutinho, researcher at the Institute for Environmental Research on the Amazon (IPAM). "Deforestation accounts for the majority of fires, historically they are linked to the advance of deforestation, combined with periods of intense dry season, but in 2019 we do not have a drought as severe as in previous years, gold there is a substantial increase in fires, so everything indicates that the dry season is not at all the predominant factor: if there had been more drought, it would have been much worse, "says the specialist. "Fires have always been human, fire is used to clear already deforested areas, open trails or prepare land for cultivation.Lack of prevention means that fires spread to drier areas that were not meant to be burned, very often the rain extinguishes them or they end up meeting denser, wetter vegetation barriers and self-extinguishing. "
Jair Bolsonaro is the target of an avalanche of criticism from scientists, conservation NGOs in the Amazon and indigenous populations for his support to the development of agriculture and mining, especially in protected areas. The two main contributors to the Amazon Fund, Norway and Germany, have recently suspended their grants to this fund to finance the preservation of the forest, because of the positions of the Brazilian president.
Impressive pictures of wildfires, apparently in the Amazon, triggered a viral storm on social networks, compounded by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's insinuations that NGOs have sparked fires. The far-right president has attacked NGOs in the wake of the publication of statistics reporting an alarming increase in forest fires in Brazil, especially in the Amazon.
"Our house burns and we look elsewhere"
Monday, August 19, 2019, Sao Paulo, the country's first metropolis, was covered in the middle of the afternoon with a black cloud apparently caused by forest fires thousands of kilometers away. On Twitter, the keyword #PrayforAmazonas (Pray for the Amazon) was the first global trend. Many Internet users were indignant by posting photos and videos showing whole areas of forest devoured by curtains of flames.
"Sixteen days that the Amazon rainforest is burning and no one is aware," lamented a user. "Our house is burning and we are looking elsewhere," another was indignant. But some of the abundantly shared images were ancient, showing for example fires in the Amazon dating back to 1989, or concerning other Brazilian states, or even countries, such as India or the United States. It was not possible to assess Wednesday, August 21, 2019 the extent of areas affected by wildfires in the Amazon.
Bolsonaro insinuates that NGOs could have caused fires
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro insinuated Wednesday, August 21, 2019 that NGOs could have caused the fires that are currently affecting the Amazon to "draw attention" to the suspension by Brasilia of subsidies for the preservation of the "lung of the planet ". "It could be, yes, it could, but I do not affirm, criminal actions of these" ONGéistes "to draw the attention against my person, against the Brazilian government. we are confronted, "the head of state told reporters on leaving his official residence in Brasilia.
Jair Bolsonaro has not provided any evidence to support his serious involvement of NGOs, but said that they "feel the lack of money", after the suspension of funding allocated to the preservation of the Amazon rainforest. "We took the money out of the NGOs, they received 40% of the grants coming from abroad, they no longer have them, and the public subsidies" to NGOs, "he explained. "The fire, apparently, has taken place in strategic locations," he continued. "Even you could not go filming in all the places where it burns, and send (your videos) abroad," he told reporters. "Because everything indicates that they went there to shoot fires, that's how I feel."
"Historically (in Amazonia) fires are directly linked to deforestation"
"Historically (in the Amazon) fires are directly linked to deforestation because it is one of the techniques to clear land," World Wildlife Fund said in a statement about burns to transform forest areas into farming areas. and rearing or cleaning previously deforested areas. According to the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), deforestation in July 2019 was almost four times higher in the same month of 2018.
Conclusions confirmed by Paulo Moutinho, researcher at the Institute for Environmental Research on the Amazon (IPAM). "Deforestation accounts for the majority of fires, historically they are linked to the advance of deforestation, combined with periods of intense dry season, but in 2019 we do not have a drought as severe as in previous years, gold there is a substantial increase in fires, so everything indicates that the dry season is not at all the predominant factor: if there had been more drought, it would have been much worse, "says the specialist. "Fires have always been human, fire is used to clear already deforested areas, open trails or prepare land for cultivation.Lack of prevention means that fires spread to drier areas that were not meant to be burned, very often the rain extinguishes them or they end up meeting denser, wetter vegetation barriers and self-extinguishing. "
Jair Bolsonaro is the target of an avalanche of criticism from scientists, conservation NGOs in the Amazon and indigenous populations for his support to the development of agriculture and mining, especially in protected areas. The two main contributors to the Amazon Fund, Norway and Germany, have recently suspended their grants to this fund to finance the preservation of the forest, because of the positions of the Brazilian president.
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