Brazil’s Bolsonaro refuses Amazon firefighting money

This 27 August 2019 video is about the Amazon rainforest wildfires.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

Brazil refuses G7 money for Amazon fires

The Brazilian government refuses the millions in aid from the G7 countries to fight the Amazon fires. At the G7 summit in Biarritz, the US, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Canada offered EUR 18 million.

“France must first comply with the points in the Paris Climate Agreement,” the Brazilian Foreign Ministry writes in a communiqué, “before launching unnecessary initiatives”. The Brazilians point out that in the Climate Agreement, billions were promised to prevent deforestation, but “those agreements are not being met”.

The Brazilian refusal is surprising: Environment Minister Salles had previously said that the aid would be very welcome. But President Bolsonaro was sceptical from the start. …

Moreover, the Brazilian government considers all attention to the fires to be very exaggerated. It is just the dry season and there are always fires, that is not very special, says the government. “But according to the figures, that is not entirely justified,” says [NOS coprrespondent] Bessems. “NASA said it’s the worst fires since 2010.” …

[French President] Macron and Bolsonaro clashed more than once in recent days.

It is basically a pot calling the kettle black situation.

In themselves, Macron’s criticisms of the environmentally destructive far-right Bolsonaro are correct and well deserved.

However, in French Guiana, the French colony bordering on Brazil, Macron wants to start environmentally destructive gold mining next door to an irreplaceable national park.

He wants to allow killing curlews, black-tailed godwits and other birds.

Macron’s Environment Minister resigned in despair, as the rest of the Macron administration always prefers corporate profits to pro-environment policies.

This pot calling the kettle black conflict is a bit similar to Macron’s conflict with the Italian government. Macron correctly criticizes the xenophobic anti-refugee policies of Salvini and other Italian ministers. However, Macron’s own anti-refugee policies are not that different.

Meanwhile, Macron and Salvini wage a bloody proxy oil war in Libya; on whether French Total corporation or Italian ENI corporation should grab Libyan oil.

Notre Dame

Minister Onyx, the right-hand man of President Bolsonaro, now suggests that the G7 money could be better used “to reforest Europe”. According to Brazilian media, he added that Macron should not lecture the Brazilians, “because he could not even prevent the fire in Notre Dame.”

The Notre Dame fire was indeed a consequence of Macron’s austerity policy. However, Bolsonaro‘s far-right government fully agrees with capitalist austerity logic. And the Amazon wildfires are another consequence of it.

Remarkably, Germany and Norway recently suspended their support for the Amazon Fund, which is intended to protect Brazil against deforestation. Norway has invested a billion euros in the fund over the past ten years, making it the largest contributor. According to both countries, the Bolsonaro government is making the work of the fund impossible and therefore it makes no sense to spend money on it.

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