Bolsonaro says Brazil lacks resources to fight Amazon fires

[Judi Lynn]

AUGUST 22, 2019 / 6:51 AM / UPDATED 11 MINUTES AGO

Anthony Boadle, Stephen Eisenhammer
4 MIN READ

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.

Federal prosecutors in Brazil said on Thursday 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.”

More:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-politics/bolsonaro-says-brazil-lacks-resources-to-fight-amazon-fires-idUKKCN1VC1AT

[no_hypocrisy]

1. This is a global disaster. Firefighters from other countries in South America

perhaps around the world should volunteer to put out these fires.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Humans are to blame for the burning Amazon, not wind and heat, environmental group says

BY CAITLIN O'KANE

AUGUST 22, 2019 / 2:01 PM / CBS NEWS

The Amazon rainforest is being ravaged by flames. Soot from thousands of wildfires has blackened skies across Brazil, and the smoke is even visible from space. Brazil's Environmental Minister Ricardo Salles has been using Twitter to give updates on the devastating fires, writing in one tweet that "dry weather, wind and heat" were to blame for their spread.

Environmentalists, however, say humans are the root cause of the fires devastating the Amazon.

Amazon Watch, a group that works to protect the rainforest and the indigenous people of the Amazon, says farmers have been setting forests ablaze to create pastures. Farmers and ranchers have been emboldened to do so by the government, said Amazon Watch program director Christian Poirier.

"The unprecedented fires ravaging the Amazon are an international tragedy and a dangerous contribution to climate chaos," Poirier said in a statement on the group's website. "This devastation is directly related to President Bolsonaro's anti-environmental rhetoric, which erroneously frames forest protections and human rights as impediments to Brazil's economic growth."

More:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/humans-are-to-blame-for-the-burning-amazon-not-wind-and-heat-environmentalist-group-says/

[Kurt V.]

3. he also claims ngo's are setting the fires. he's literally a threat to humanity.