Environmentalists say they believe that cattle ranchers and loggers and farmers are burning new rain forestland and creating a huge haze over the region.
August 23, 2019

While everyone's reporting on the Amazon fires, they're not going into much detail about the Trumpian policies of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro -- who was elected with substantial help from YouTube's right-wing algorithms.

"Now to what could be the most critical story of the day. There are massive fires burning across the Amazon rain forest and turning into an international crisis," Alysin Camerota said.

"Take a look at your screen. Brazil's president is dismissing criticism that his own pro-business policies are to blame. He is blaming his political opponents. Meanwhile, the haze from these fires is spreading across South America. Shasta Darlington is live with the latest.The Amazon rain forest is important to everyone on earth."

"That's right. and these fire continue to consume the Amazon rain forest at a disturbing rate," Shasta Darlington said.

"If you look at satellite photos, you can see the rain forest. Experts say that the vast majority of the fires are man-made. of course this is the burning season. this is when farmers will take advantage of the dry temperatures and burn their land so they can plant new crops, but this huge surge, more than 80% more fires than in the same period last year, indicates that this is not normal.

"And environmentalists say they believe that cattle ranchers and loggers and farmers are burning new rain forestland and really creating this huge haze over the region. It's also creating a diplomatic -- an international diplomatic dispute, with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, tweeting out yesterday, 'Our house is burning.' Suggesting the Amazon fires should be a topic at the G7 meeting. Brazil of course does not have a seat on the G7, and Brazil's president bristled at that. He called this 'a colonial mind-set,' " Darlington said.

"But the fact is, he has been blaming NGOs, saying 'Maybe they're setting the fires just to make me look bad since I've taken away their funding.' This has really brought this kind of international response. He now seems to be taking things a bit more seriously. He held an emergency meeting last night according to local media with his ministers. And he published an edict in the official bulletin demanding they take all necessary measures to finally bring these fires under control.

"It might be a too little too late, both for the Amazon and his international reputation."

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