Bolsonaro says Brazil lacks resources to fight Amazon fires

[webfact]

Bolsonaro says Brazil lacks resources to fight Amazon fires

By Anthony Boadle and Stephen Eisenhammer

 

FILE PHOTO: A man works in a burning tract of Amazon jungle as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil August 20, 2019. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly/File Photo

 

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - The Brazilian government lacks the resources to fight a record number of wildfires burning in the Amazon rainforest, President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday, weeks after telling donors he did not need their money.

 

"The Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?," he asked reporters as he left the presidential residence. "We do not have the resources for that."

 

Fires in the Amazon have surged 83% so far this year compared with the same period a year earlier, government figures show, destroying vast swathes of a forest considered a vital bulwark against climate change.

 

Although fires are a regular and natural occurrence during the regular dry season at this time of year, environmentalists blamed the sharp rise on farmers setting the forest alight to clear land for pasture.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron said on his twitter account the fires in the Amazon forest are an international emergency and should be discussed by the G7 summit that will begin on Saturday in Biarritz, France.

 

Thousands of wildfires are decimating the Amazon, threatening the very existence of the world’s largest rainforest and a bulwark against climate change. Jake Spring and Lisa Bernhard have more.

 

Federal prosecutors in Brazil said they are investigating a spike in deforestation and wildfires raging in the Amazon state of Pará to determine whether there has been reduced monitoring and enforcement of environmental protections there.

 

Prosecutors also said they will investigate an ad reportedly published by a local newspaper last week encouraging farmers to participate in a "Fire Day," in which they would burn large areas of forest "to show Bolsonaro their willingness to work."

 

The probe is being led by prosecutors in the cities of Santarém, Itaituba, Altamira and Belém.

 

On Wednesday, Bolsonaro said, without supporting evidence, that non-governmental organizations were behind the fires.

 

Questioned again on Thursday about those comments, he said he could not prove that NGOs, for whom he has cut funding, were lighting the fires but that they were "the most likely suspects."

 

The firebrand right-wing president has repeatedly said he believes Brazil should open the Amazon up to business interests, to allow mining and logging companies to exploit its natural resources.

 

"As NGOs lose funding ... What can they do?" he asked. "Try to take me down, try to take me down. That's all that's left for them to do."

 

Brazil is facing growing international criticism over its handling of the Amazon, 60% of which lies in the country.

 

Earlier this month, Norway and Germany suspended funding for projects to curb deforestation in Brazil after becoming alarmed by changes to the way projects were selected under Bolsonaro.

 

At the time, when asked about the loss of German funding, Bolsonaro said “Brazil does not need that.”

 

Other officials have expressed concern over the fires.

 

Brazil's lower house speaker, Rodrigo Maia, said on Twitter he would create "an external committee" to monitor the burning of the rainforest. He also vowed to form a group "to evaluate the situation and propose solutions to the government."

 

The Bishops Conference for Latin America expressed concern about what it called "a tragedy," and on Thursday called on countries to take immediate action to protect the rainforest and the communities that live in and around it.

 

"We urge the governments of the Amazon countries, especially Brazil and Bolivia, the United Nations and the international community to take serious measures to save the world's lungs," the Bishops Conference said.

 

"If the Amazon suffers, the world suffers," the statement said.

 

(Reporting by Eduardo Simões and Stephen Eisenhammer in Sao Paulo, Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Additional reporting by Mitra Taj in Lima; editing by Bernadette Baum and Marguerita Choy)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-08-23

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[spidermike007]

Bolsanaro is weak minded, and completely lacks vision and any concern for the well being of his people, nor the world. He is lying through his teeth. They have alot of resources at their disposal. It is simply a small man, facing a loss of face, from international condemnation, that is well deserved. His actions have brought this on. He is personally accountable to the Brazilian people, and what he is doing to that nation is horrendous. 

 

His wrecklessness with the environment there reminds one of Trump in the US. No vision towards the future. Let us rape the land, sea and air right now, for ultimate profit, no matter what the consequences are. Never, ever say no to a lobbyist, or industry representative. Never consider what is best for the people. 

[from the home of CC]

Sounds like a clever schemer to me, with the world in the midst of an ecological guilt trip there's not a better time to start an elite go fund me and get the fires put out using other peoples money - hell he might of started the fires with this goal in mind..  

[nobodysfriend]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Prosecutors also said they will investigate an ad reportedly published by a local newspaper last week encouraging farmers to participate in a "Fire Day," in which they would burn large areas of forest "to show Bolsonaro their willingness to work."

There is only one place he should be : in PRISON

 

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Bolsonaro says Brazil lacks resources to fight Amazon fires

It was Bolsonaro's policies who encouraged the people to light the fires . Now he wants foreign money to extinct them ... ?

 

[bendejo]

19 hours ago, webfact said:

Bolsonaro said, without supporting evidence, that non-governmental organizations were behind the fires.

That's the giveaway: any decent government-er's initial statement would be to call it a disaster, calling for an investigation into the cause,  etc.

Nope, not this guy, he's pointing the finger of blame for a deliberate act.  He's saying it IS a deliberate act, and he's deflecting the blame. (This blaming of things on NGOs seems to be a new trend with dictators.)  He got big support from Brazilian agri-biz during his campaign.  So goes the forest lands, and along with them goes the controversy. 

The China tariffs are causing a downsizing of US agri-biz, and China has been cutting new deals with Brazil.  Big time.  And it's not like when there is a new occupant of the White House that things will go back to what they were. 

 

 

[Tug]

He needs to be healed to account the fires must be put out asap

[bendejo]

On 8/22/2019 at 4:34 PM, webfact said:

Bolsonaro says Brazil lacks resources to fight Amazon fires

That he wants to fight the fires is a very broad assumption.