The Amazon’s fires could burn Jair Bolsonaro

PICTURES OF FIRES raging in the rainforest. A social-media storm in which #AmazonIsBurning dominated what passes for the global conversation. A war of words in which Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, branded as a liar his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, who in turn accused Mr Macron of colonialism and mocked his wife’s looks. An offer of $22m from the G7 countries to help fight the fires, which Mr Bolsonaro rejected unless Mr Macron ate his words. It has been an extraordinary ten days for Brazil. Through the smoke, two things are clear: Mr Bolsonaro’s policies are profoundly destructive of the Amazon rainforest, and deterring him will take much more subtlety abroad and more determination from opponents and even allies at home.

A former army captain of far-right views, Mr Bolsonaro won Brazil’s presidency last year partly on a platform of reviving a moribund economy by sweeping away left-wingery and green regulation. He promised to end fines for violations of environmental law, shrink the protected areas that account for half of the Brazilian Amazon and fight NGOs, for which he has a visceral hatred. In office, his government has gutted the environment ministry and Ibama, the quasi-autonomous environmental agency. Six of the ten senior posts in the ministry’s department of forests and sustainable development are vacant, according to its website. The government talks of “monetising” the Amazon but sabotaged a $1.3bn European fund that aims to give value to the standing forest.