Sao Paulo: In the dense forests of north Brazil, the tree cover is thick like a green carpet sprawled over an endless earth, rivulets snake through the creeks and drop into huge rivers, birds sing during the day and winds whistle at night, and wisdom is passed from one generation to other through ancient sayings. One of such indigenous maxims is about how to protect the forest from any harm. “One should never say bad things or do evil deeds or make offences so that the forest does not catch fire," goes the saying, which is shared among the tribes living in the Amazon rainforest for thousands of years. They have known forever that their words and action can fuel a fire in the forests.
Now, the worst fears of these ancient people have come true as harsh words and reckless deeds are pushing the rainforest to a tipping point. The Amazon is on fire, literally: leaping blazes are eating trees, sending up thick plumes of smoke, covering the rivers with soot, making animals run for cover, and pushing hundreds of tribes deep inside the forests. In just three weeks, more than 74,000 hectares of forest land has been lost to raging blazes, which are burning in seven of the nine states that share the Brazilian part of the world’s biggest rainforest. As of today, a pall of haze sits over 3.2 million square kilometres (sq. km), equal to the area of India, across South America.
But even in such a catastrophic scenario, the response of Brazilian government, led by its far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, has been largely erratic.
A state of denial
The first fires of this year started on 10 August. Despite enough evidence that criminals were setting the fire, the Bolsonaro regime neither acknowledged nor acted on it. The government blamed it on nature, calling it an “annual occurrence". Even after the smoke from some 26,000 scattered fires darkened the sky over Sao Paulo, which is more than 3,000 km from the Amazon region, on 19 August, the government stayed in a denial mode.
But the world was becoming aware of the unfolding disaster. On 22 August, at the onset of the G7 conference, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “Our house is burning. Literally…It is an international crisis… Members of the G7 Summit, let’s discuss this emergency first order in two days!" On the eve of the G7 leaders discussing the Amazon issue, Bolsonaro was watching a stand-up comedy show in Brasilia.
Since coming to power in January, Bolsonaro has treated environmental issues like a joke. He has also fuelled the fires with his words and policies. During his poll campaign, he repeatedly attacked the country’s scientists, environmental agencies and non-governmental organizations. After assuming the presidency, he packed his cabinet with a clutch of climate-change deniers. Brazil’s foreign minister Ernesto Araújo is on record saying that he does not believe in global warming. Environment minister Ricardo Salles has been dubbed by analysts as “deforestation minister". In early August, as forest fires began to dominate headlines, Bolsonaro responded by attacking the media for spreading “fake news". Then he fired the chief of the country’s satellite monitoring agency for pointing out a spike of 278% in deforestation in July.
Such actions have stunned the experts, who say the fires in the Amazon are caused by humans. Usually, according to experts, the area is deforested and then set on fire to “clear" it and, later, turn into a crop or grazing land. “The government demobilized the apparatus to combat deforestation, and the statements of the president clearly signalled that the government’s position was quite relaxed for supervision," says Joao Paulo Capobianco, an Amazon specialist who worked with the ministry of environment between 2003 and 2008. “To make it worse, the government showed support to those indulging in destructive actions. The consequence of this approach was the increase in deforestation," says the expert who once coordinated the Deforestation Prevention and Control Plan.
With the fires raging and a haze moving towards Argentina and Uruguay in the south, in a matter of days, Brazil suddenly became a green villain.
A battered image
Barring its football rivalry with Argentina, this country has no enemies. Brazil does not have a border dispute with any of the 10 countries it shares a frontier with. In the eyes of the world, Brazil has been a land of magical football and mesmerizing samba. In recent decades, Brazil has emerged on the world stage as an economic powerhouse with important role in global affairs, including climate issues.
But the blaze in the Amazon, which absorbs 25% of the 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon removed from the atmosphere every year, has tarnished Brazil’s positive image as millions around the world see the destruction of the rainforest as a crime against humanity. With Bolsonaro doing nothing but spitting provocative words, millions came out on the streets of Brazil and in world capitals to protests against his mining, lumbering and land-grabbing policies. The eco-warriors Extinction Rebellion (XR) organized protests in front of Brazilian embassies in various countries. In front of the Brazilian Embassy in London, protesters chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, Bolsonaro’s got to go!"
Foreign policy experts see this as the worst image crisis faced by the country in 50 years. “Brazil’s image as a responsible actor on international relations was already cast into doubt by Bolsonaro’s erratic behaviour and it has suffered immensely just in one week because of the fires in the Amazon and the government’s delayed response to the crisis as well as because of the president’s irresponsible rhetoric," says Adriana Abdenur, a leading Brazilain social scientist based in Rio de Janeiro.
Aggression as defence
Those who know the Brazilian President say that he is not the one to ever shy away from a nasty fight. At the G7 meeting, as Macron called Bolsonaro a “liar" for failing to meet the environmental commitments he had promised to at the G20 summit in June. In his Donald Trump-like style, the Brazilian responded on social media by mocking the French first lady. Soon, the personal insults morphed into the issue of national sovereignty as Macron suggested an international agency to take control of the Amazon. That touched a raw nerve.
Going back decades, the Brazilians, especially its military circles, have feared a foreign intervention in its rainforest for its riches. In the 1990s, Bolsonaro, a former army captain who became a Congressman, often accused the US of planning a military invasion of the Brazilian rainforest. As Macron resurrected an old ghost last week, Bolsonaro rejected the proposed aid of $20 million from the G7 leaders unless the French apologized for “challenging" Brazilian sovereignty.
Bolsonaro might have rallied some support among the Brazilians on the question of sovereignty but his rejection of Macron’s aid offer has largely been criticized. His government has also declined assistance which pose no threat to Brazil’s sovereignty. The Amazon Fund, a programme for preserving the rainforest, which has so far received $1.3 billion in grants, mainly from Norway and Germany, was shut down recently by the Bolsonaro government. “It is an absolutely mistaken reaction. Brazil is going through a fiscal crisis. In fact, the president said last week that the government had no money for anything," says Capobianco.