As the Amazon burns and the world looks on aghast while the planet’s lungs go up in flames responsible leaders are doing what they should be doing, and that is offering help to the nation most affected.
But what does the leader of the nation facing the carnage do?
He picks a fight with the leader of France and has refused to accept help unless and until the French leader apologises for earlier pointing out some unfortunate truths.
From Radio New Zealand:
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has ruled out accepting a G7 offer of aid to fight fires in the Amazon rainforest unless he gets an apology from his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Bolsonaro said the French leader should apologise for insulting him personally by calling him a liar.
Mr Macron had accused him of “lying” about fighting climate change.
Aid worth $US22 million was announced by Mr Macron at a summit in France of the seven leading industrial powers.
Satellite data show a record number of fires burning in Brazil, most of them in the Amazon region.
Earlier, Brazilian ministers said the G7 money was not needed and they accused foreign powers of wanting control of the Amazon.
Last week, Mr Macron said Mr Bolsonaro had “lied” to him at a G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in June by failing to respect his climate commitments and by failing to pursue biodiversity.
Mr Macron said France would not ratify a huge trade deal with South American nations unless Brazil did more to fight fires in the Amazon.
On Tuesday, Mr Bolsonaro told reporters in the capital Brasilia: “Mr Macron must withdraw the insults that he made to my person. Firstly, he called me a liar.”
He also accused Mr Macron of questioning Brazilian sovereignty over the Amazon region, Brazilian news website G1 reports.
“To talk or to accept anything from France, whether it be with the best possible intentions, he [Mr Macron] will have to withdraw those words and then we can talk,” he said.
Bolsonaro also took the opportunity to insult Macron’s wife. He is that extreme he makes Trump appear to be relatively mainstream.
Macron’s earlier criticism is valid. Bolsonaro has made it a feature of his leadership to neuter federal environment agencies, frustrate the formation of new indigenous reserves and open up existing reserves to mining. And at least some of the fires are active attempts to clear land for farming. If he is not stopped the Amazon will be irreversibly changed.
Dear fellow humans. In the future can we all work to get progressive intelligent and dedicated leaders elected to positions of power? These testosterone driven clowns are going to wreck the place. And it is the only one that we have.
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