Brazilian President Falsely Claims Amazon Fires Were Started by Environmental Groups to Make Him Look Bad

The NGOs hit back, with Marcio Astrini of Greenpeace Brazil saying, “This is a sick statement, a pitiful statement. Increased deforestation and burning are the result of his anti-environmental policy.”

Indeed, many of the fires are said to have been started by those clearing land for farming and logging — an initiative begun by Bolsonaro, who wants to use the rainforest for industrial activity.

So far, there has been around 73,000 fires in Brazil in 2019, which is nearly double that of 2018. More than half of them have been in the Amazon.

The Amazon provides over 20 percent of the world’s oxygen, but Bolsonaro, who calls climate change a hoax, thinks efforts to curb deforestation of the rainforest are foreign attempts to halt Brazil’s economic development.