The brutal devastation of the Amazon has been highlighted recently by news sources all around the world. On September 24, 2019, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro addressed the UN, and the Amazon was one of his main talking points. Bolsonaro insisted that the Amazon is not the heritage of humankind, nor is it the lungs of the planet. He further condemned common globalist perspectives saying that certain countries have bought into media exaggerations about the Amazon and behaved in a disrespectful manner and with a colonialist spirit. In a pointed rebuttal to France and Germany (both publicly concerned over the rise in deforestation) Bolsonaro pointed out that both European countries use over 50% of their land for agriculture, whereas Brazil uses just 8%.
It was clear throughout his speech that Bolsonaro was full of contempt and on the defensive. This is because he sees the international spotlight and interference on the issue as calling Brazil’s sovereignty into question. It is especially interesting to me the lack of nuance that the stories about the Amazonian fires have had. Bolsonaro says the Amazon is Brazil’s alone, and rightly so. News outlets, and the world more generally, have failed to look at the story through a Brazilian lense. Whatever else the Amazon is to the world, to Brazilians the Amazon rainforest is unused capital, plain and simple–good for land and lumber. Bolsonaro sees the international pressure not to commercialize the rainforest as a hindrance to the welfare of his country and an attack on their sovereignty.
Bolsonaro’s apparent apathy about the fires goes along with one of the main messages that got him elected: economic freedom. If the Amazonian fires free up more capital for the Brazilian people to utilize, he is likely to prioritize that over any climate concerns. Though harsh, who am I to say that deforestation matters more than the economic welfare of Brazilians?
Now that I have seen things through the Brazilian lense, there are some clear issues with Bolsonaro’s stance. Though it is true that the Amazon does not produce even close to 20% of the world’s oxygen, it still does represent 6% of the oxygen produced by photosynthetic organisms. Furthermore, the rainforest is home to thousands of rare and endangered species, offering biodiversity that supports the robustness of our global ecosystem. Most importantly, the Amazon and the areas around it have people in them whose lives are put at risk by doing nothing to stop these massive fires.
Looking at the issue from both sides, there is certainly no clear answer what should happen next; however, the question of what will happen next is easier to try and predict. The likely answer … not much. Bolsonaro is correct that Brazil is a sovereign country. Though countries like Austria, who tried to push Brazil to address the issue by holding up a trade deal, want to compel Brazil to take action, Bolsonaro does not seem like the kind of leader to bend to such pressure. Any foreign intervention would need his stamp of approval, and, in all likelihood, the fires will slowly be put under control by Brazil and the land used for agriculture.