Thunberg gets under skin of Brazilian president

CLIMATE ACTIVIST NAMED TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday called young Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg a “brat” after she expressed concern about the slayings of indigenous Brazilians in the Amazon.

Bolsonaro questioned the coverage news media have given Thunberg, 16, who on Sunday tweeted a link to a story about the murder of two Indigenous people in Brazil’s Maranhao state.

“Greta said that the Indians died because they were defending the Amazon,” Bolsonaro told a group of journalists. “It’s impressive that the press is giving space to a brat like that,” he added, using the Portuguese word “pirralha.”

Following Bolsonaro’s comments, Thunberg changed the bio on her Twitter profile to say “Pirralha.”

Thunberg became a symbol for youth demanding radical change to confront climate change when she sparked global school strikes.

Her comments about the deaths of the Indigenous people came as the UN was hosting its international climate change conference, where Brazil’s environmental policies have been the subject of criticism. Deforestation of its Amazon rose nearly 30 per cent in the 12 months through July.

“Indigenous people are being literally murdered for trying to protect the forrest (sic) from illegal deforestation,” she tweeted. “Over and over again. It is shameful that the world remains silent about this.”

The remark by Bolsonaro — and Thunberg’s reaction — caught the attention of Brazilian environmental activists at the COP25 climate talks in Madrid.

Gabriela Baesse, 27, said that the exchange showed the Brazilian president “doesn’t understand the youth.”

On Wednesday, Thunberg said she was surprised and honoured to be named Time’s youngest Person of the Year, while adding that others in the global movement she helped inspire deserve to share the accolade.

The teen has become the face of a new generation of environmental activists, drawing large crowds with her appearances at protests and conferences over the past year and a half. Some have welcomed her work, including her speeches challenging world leaders to do more to stop global warming. But others have criticized her sometimes combative tone.

“For sounding the alarm about humanity’s predatory relationship with the only home we have, for bringing to a fragmented world a voice that transcends backgrounds and borders, for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads, Greta Thunberg is Time’s 2019 Person of the Year,” the media franchise said on its website.

As she left a UN climate conference in Madrid, Thunberg told The Associated Press that she was “a bit surprised” at the recognition.