CRISIS IN THE AMAZON:
Handout picture collected by a satellite of 2019 Planet Labs Inc. on Aug. 20 shows smoke and fires in Brazil’s Para state. French President Emmanuel Macron said the record number of fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is an international crisis that must be discussed at this weekend’s G7 Summit.
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said raging wildfires in the Amazon were an “international crisis” and called on this weekend’s G7 to address the issue.
“Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rainforest — the lungs which produces 20 percent of our planet’s oxygen — is on fire. It is an international crisis. Members of the G7 Summit, let’s discuss this emergency first order in two days!” he said on Twitter.
His comments came as Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said his government lacked the resources to fight a record number of wildfires burning in the Amazon rainforest, weeks after telling donors he did not need their money.
Fires in the Amazon have surged 83 percent 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.
“The Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?” Bolsonaro asked reporters as he left the presidential residence on Thursday. “We do not have the resources for that.”
Federal prosecutors in Brazil said the same day that 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.
Federal prosecutors in Brazil said the same day that 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.