Along a forest road in the small town of Monte Negro in Rondônia state, just south of the Amazon basin, cowboys from the area’s vast cattle ranches display their talent at a rodeo. In recent years, Monte Negro has expanded as a key cattle town with a strong cowboy culture
Continue reading...Category Archives: Amazon rainforest
‘Chaos, chaos, chaos’: a journey through Bolsonaro’s Amazon inferno
A 2,000km road and river odyssey in Brazil reveals consensus from all sides: Bolsonaro has ushered in a new age of wrecking
From afar it resembles a tornado: an immense grey column shooting thousands of feet upwards from the forest canopy into the Amazonian skies.
Up close it is an inferno: a raging conflagration obliterating yet another stretch of the world’s greatest rainforest as a herd of Nelore cattle looks on in bewilderment.
Continue reading...Amazon fires are a shameful indictment of our lust for excess
The flames engulfing the world’s biggest rainforest are a human tragedy as well as an environmental one. We are all to blame
The scale of the devastation caused by the wildfires still raging in the Amazon is hard to comprehend. This is a rainforest that provides one-fifth of the world’s oxygen; it is hard not to feel powerless and despairing in the face of the disaster overtaking the region.
But however strong – and bitter – the feeling about this as an environmental catastrophe, we must never lose sight of the fact that it is also a human tragedy.
Continue reading...Amazon fires are ‘true apocalypse’, says Brazilian archbishop
Erwin Kräutler says he expects next month’s papal synod to denounce destruction of rainforest
The fires in the Amazon are a “true apocalypse”, according to a Brazilian archbishop who expects next month’s papal synod at the Vatican to strongly denounce the destruction of the rainforest.
The comments by Erwin Kräutler will put fresh pressure on the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, following criticism from G7 leaders last month over the surge of deforestation in the world’s biggest terrestrial carbon sink.
Continue reading...Corporations pile pressure on Brazil over Amazon fires
Asset managers, pension funds and companies halt deals and stop buying bonds
Financial pressure is growing on Brazil over fires in the Amazon and the far-right president’s belligerent response to them.
Asset managers, pension funds and companies have issued warnings, halted deals and stopped purchases of government bonds.
Continue reading...Amazon fires show world heading for point of no return, says UN
Biodiversity chief calls for countries to unite to halt rapid degradation of nature
The fires in the Amazon are “extraordinarily concerning” for the planet’s natural life support systems, the head of the UN’s top biodiversity body has said in a call for countries, companies and consumers to build a new relationship with nature.
Related: Brazil: fears for isolated Amazon tribes as fires erupt on protected reserves
Continue reading...Brazil: fears for isolated Amazon tribes as fires erupt on protected reserves
- Fires broke out in 131 indigenous reserves from 15-20 August
- Campaigners say indigenous territories easy targets for loggers
Fires have been reported in protected indigenous reserves of the Brazilian Amazon, raising fears that loggers and land grabbers have targeted these remote areas during the dramatic surge in blazes across the world’s biggest rainforest.
Blazes have been seen on the Araribóia indigenous reserve in Maranhão state – a heavily deforested reserve on the Amazon’s eastern fringes, which is home to about 80 people from an isolated group of Awá indigenous people, described by the NGO Survival International as the world’s most endangered tribe.
Continue reading...Xikrin people fight back against Amazon land-grabbing
Indigenous community under threat from fire, deforestation and Bolsonaro
Threatened by fire, deforestation and invasion, the Xikrin people of the northern Amazon are fighting back.
While the authorities stand idle and the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, tries to undermine their territorial rights, the indigenous community have taken matters into their own hands by expelling the loggers and ranchers who illegally occupied their land and set fire to the forest.
Continue reading...‘Worst of wildfires still to come’ despite Brazil claiming crisis is under control
Forestry expert warns annual burning season had yet to fully play out and calls for urgent steps to reduce potential damage
The fires raging in the Brazilian Amazon are likely to intensify over the coming weeks, a leading environmental expert has warned, despite government claims the situation had been controlled.
Related: Amazon fires: what is happening and is there anything we can do?
Continue reading...Jair Bolsonaro demands Macron withdraw ‘insults’ over Amazon fires
Brazilian and French presidents continue feud over G7 aid package for wildfires raging in Amazon rainforest
Brazil’s far-right president and his backers have escalated their row over the Amazon with Emmanuel Macron, attacking the French president’s “lamentable colonialist stance” as fires continued to rage in the world’s biggest rainforest.
As Brazil said it would reject a $20m (£16m) G7 contribution to fight the fires, Jair Bolsonaro spurned Macron’s criticism of his environmental record and flaunted Donald Trump’s support for his far-right administration.
Continue reading...Amazon rainforest fires: Brazil to reject $20m pledged by G7
Senior official says funds should be spent on reforesting Europe and not on ‘colonialist practices’
A senior Brazilian official has told Emmanuel Macron to take care of “his home and his colonies” as Brazil rejected an offer from G7 countries of $20m (£16m) to help fight fires in the Amazon.
“We appreciate [the offer], but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,” Onyx Lorenzoni, the chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, told the G1 news website.
Continue reading...G7 cash for Amazon fires is ‘chump change’, say campaigners
World leaders offer $20m now plus reforestation plan, but critics want major policy shifts
The G7’s pledge of $20m (£16m) to douse the fires in the Amazon has been dismissed as “chump change” by environmental campaigners, as concerns grow about political cooperation on deforestation and other climate issues.
The summit host, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, told reporters he would try to deal with the long-term causes by creating an international alliance to save the rainforest, with details of a reforestation programme to be unveiled at next month’s UN climate meeting in New York.
Continue reading...Brazilian warplanes dump water on Amazon fires as outcry mounts
G7 leaders stepped up pressure on president Jair Bolsonaro to tackle destruction of precious rainforest
Brazilian warplanes have begun dumping water on burning forest in the Amazon state of Rondonia, responding to an outcry over the destruction of the world’s largest tropical rain forest.
President Jair Bolsonaro authorised military operations in seven states on Sunday to combat raging fires in the Amazon, responding to requests for assistance from their local governments, a spokeswoman for his office said.
Continue reading...Ex-minister: Bolsonaro ‘most detested’ leader as he neglects the Amazon
Rubens Ricupero warns the far-right leader is wreaking havoc on Brazil’s environment and its global standing
Jair Bolsonaro’s neglect of the Amazon has made him “the most despised and detested leader” on earth, Brazil’s former environment minister has claimed, as the far-right leader again rebuked French president Emmanuel Macron for challenging his environmental record.
Rubens Ricupero warned Bolsonaro was wreaking havoc on both Brazil’s environment and its global standing, as Bolsonaro used Facebook to scold Macron’s “inappropriate and gratuitous attacks” over the Amazon fires and insult France’s first lady.
Continue reading...Macron: ‘All G7 powers must help Brazil fight raging Amazon fires’
French president talks up trade sanctions as world leaders convene and thousands of Brazilians march against Bolsonaro
Emmanuel Macron has asked for world powers to help Brazil and its neighbours fight the fires raging in the Amazon and to plan huge replanting programmes. The appeal came as the French president piled pressure on Brazil’s far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who has been accused of fuelling the burning of the rainforest.
As environmental protesters marched nearby, the G7 summit’s, opening meeting was dominated by the spectre of economic repercussions for Brazil and its South American neighbours and showed how the Amazon is becoming a battleground between Bolsonaro and the west. Many governments have become alarmed that vast swathes of the Amazon are going up in smoke, affecting biodiversity and worsening the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Bolsonaro enjoys comedy club outing as Amazon fires rage on
President watches rightwing comic as pre-recorded speech to nation on fighting fires airs
While the Amazon burned and Brazilians demonstrated their outrage, Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro went to a comedy club.
As the president’s pre-recorded speech to the nation explaining how he planned to use the army to fight the fires – while simultaneously insisting that the rate of burning of the forest was nothing out of the ordinary – was broadcast on television on Friday night, he was at a standup show in Brasília by right-wing Christian comic Jonathan Nemer.
Continue reading...Jair Bolsonaro claims ‘profound love’ for Amazon rainforest as criticism intensifies
President uses TV speech to criticise ‘disinformation’ about fire crisis, saying it cannot be used as pretext for sanctions
Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has professed to feeling “profound love and respect” for the Amazon as fires continued to rage in the world’s biggest tropical rainforest and criticism of his environmental policies intensified.
In a televised address to the nation – met with pot-banging protests in several Brazilian cities – Bolsonaro said he was “not content” with the situation in the Amazon and was taking “firm action” to resolve it by deploying troops to the region.
Continue reading...France and Ireland declare opposition to trade deal over Amazon fires
Brazil’s handling of forest fires set to top agenda of G7 countries at meeting in Biarritz this weekend
Amazon fires: what is happening and is there anything we can do?
France and Ireland have said they will oppose an EU trade deal with South American countries unless Brazil takes action to stop the burning of the Amazon.
On the eve of a meeting of the G7 nations in Biarritz, an Élysée source said Emmanuel Macron thought Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, “lied” to him at the G20 meeting in Osaka in June about his climate commitments and therefore France would oppose the Mercosur treaty.
Continue reading...Brazilian minister booed at climate event as outcry grows over Amazon fires
Political storm over rainforest devastation as Ricardo Salles attends summit
The environment minister of Brazil, where wildfires have been sweeping the Amazon rainforest, was booed at a climate event on Wednesday as celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio and Ariana Grande joined an international chorus of criticism.
Videos of Ricardo Salles being booed by demonstrators as he took to the stage at Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week in the north-eastern city of Salvador circulated widely in Brazil. An opposition senator is planning to seek his impeachment at Brazil’s supreme court.
Continue reading...Brazil’s environment minister heckled at climate conference – video report
Jeering activists interrupted a speech by Ricardo Salles on Wednesday at the Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week conference in Salvador, Brazil. Booing protesters virtually drowned out Salles' speech during which one activist held a placard reading: 'Don't you get tired of your own lies?' The minister and the government of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, have come under fire for their policies, which activists say are harming the environment
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