‘Our house is burning’

Amid global pressure, Brazil to send army to fight fires; G7 leaders vow ‘concrete measures’ to protect nature

BRASILIA: Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday he may mobilise the army to help combat fires sweeping through the Amazon rainforest, as international condemnation and pressure mounted for tough action to quell the unfolding crisis.

Having first dismissed the fires as natural, then blaming non-governmental organisations without evidence for lighting them, Bolsonaro struck a more serious note on Friday, saying he would summon top cabinet members to tailor a response.

Asked by reporters in Brasilia if he would send in the army, he said: “That is the expectation.” Edson Leal Pujol, head of Brazil’s armed forces, said his soldiers were ready to defend the Amazon, though his words also appeared to refer to threats other than the fires.

83 PER CENT INCREASE

Forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon, which accounts for more than half of the world’s largest rainforest, have surged 83 per cent this year, according to government data, destroying vast swathes of a vital bulwark against global climate change.

As the fires burned, foreign pressure continued to grow. Several hundred activists protested outside the Brazilian embassies in Paris and London on Friday.

The leaders of Britain, France and Germany added their voices to an international chorus of concern, with President Emmanuel Macron’s office accusing Bolsonaro of lying when he played down concerns over climate change at the G20 summit in June.

“Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon, the lung of our planet which produces 20 per cent of our oxygen is burning,” Macron said on Twitter, posting a photograph of a burning forest accompanied by the hashtag #ActForTheAmazon.

“It is an international crisis. Members of the G7, let’s talk in two days about this emergency,” Macron said ahead of a planned summit this weekend in Biarritz.

ACUTE EMERGENCY

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was “deeply concerned” about the fires and “the impact of the tragic loss of these precious habitats,” and would use the summit of G7 leaders this weekend to call for a renewed focus on protecting nature, a spokeswoman said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s Macron also believed the fires should be on the G7 agenda.

Alexandre Antonelli, director of science at Britain’s Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, urged that import sanctions be imposed on Brazil because of the fires.

“Immediate action is necessary to extinguish the current fires and prevent future ones,” the Brazilian scientist said.

— Reuters