Images of the Amazon forest burning have flooded the internet in recent days, compelling celebrities from Leonardo DiCaprio and Gisele Bundchen to global leaders attending the Group of Seven meeting in Biarritz, France, to appeal for action. The fires have also put Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in the spotlight. Cutting and burning alerts in the 2 million-square-mile rainforest, home to 10% of all known plant and animal species, have soared to multiyear highs over the past weeks. The spike followed Bolsonaro’s pledges of slashing restrictions and opening up the forest—including its indigenous reserves—for farming and mining activities and his repeated criticism of environmental organizations and regulators.
The Brazilian president, who first dismissed official deforestation numbers as “lying” and “bad advertising,” has now reversed course and promised to fight criminal fires in the Amazon region amid rising fears of sanctions against the country’s booming agricultural exports. The South American nation is the world’s largest supplier of soybeans and beef.
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