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The image that was shared around the world was horrifically dystopian. On Monday, the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo plummeted into darkness in the middle of the day, and the world watched on in horror. What they were witnessing was the knock-on effect of the Amazon rainforest, some 2,700 kilometres away, burning at an unprecedented rate, causing a cloud of ash and smoke to block out the sun.
The way the modern news cycle works favours the stories that affect us directly, or reflect the circumstances that are somewhat familiar to us. This is why when the forest fires of California started to creep into the back gardens of the Kardashians, or when the familiar symbol of western Catholicism Notre Dame up in flames was broadcast by news stations around the world, we listened and responded accordingly.
Which is why the outrage that’s now spreading across the internet and news channels, however delayed, is warranted. Some say climate change is to blame; others are pointing a finger at Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro for actively dismantling the policies put in place to stop deforestation and cattle farming in the Amazon, something he started doing. Chances are it’s a caustic mix of the two: one fanning the very real flames of the other.
Bolsonaro has decided that it’s best to blame the NGOs and charities whose job it is to protect these places from mass destruction for the fires. Speaking to a steel industry congress in the capital Brasilia, he said: “On the question of burning in the Amazon, which in my opinion may have been initiated by NGOs because they lost money, what is the intention? To bring problems to Brazil.” It’s worth stating that Bolsonaro has no evidence to back up these claims; they’re baseless hypotheses.
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