Jair Bolsonaro shrugs as the Amazon burns

WHEN SÃO PAULO went dark at 3pm on August 19th, the city’s 12m-plus inhabitants were stunned by the black cloud that descended on the city. Some took photos of the dystopian scene; others called loved ones in fear that the end was nigh. A popular religious YouTube channel told subscribers that Jesus was returning for the second coming.

Forget the end of days. This apocalypse is man-made. The mid-afternoon darkness, most accept, was caused by rare atmospheric conditions that brought smoke from the fires burning thousands of kilometres away in the Amazonian rainforest.

The cloud, as well as recent alarming data about the extent of this year’s fires, provoked an outcry in Brazil. It also kindled a blazing international row over Brazil’s stewardship of the Amazon. President Emmanuel Macron of France took to Twitter to demand that world leaders discuss the fires at the G7 summit which he is hosting in Biarritz on August 24th-26th. “Our house is burning. Literally,” wrote Mr Macron. “It is an international crisis.” Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, weighed in, tweeting that he “couldn’t agree more”. Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, retorted that the Amazon was an “internal issue”. He denounced Mr Macron’s request as evidence of “a misplaced colonialist mindset in the 21st century.”

Mr Bolsonaro, who took power in January, does not believe in climate change. He regards the Amazon as a “virgin” that should be “exploited” for agriculture, mining and infrastructure projects. During the Amazon’s dry season, it is common for farmers to set fires illegally to clear land. But Mr Bolsonaro stands accused of encouraging the wanton destruction of the world’s greatest tropical forest, not least by ordering his environment minister, Ricardo Salles, to sack 21 of 27 senior officials at Ibama, the country’s environmental protection agency.

France and Ireland say they now oppose a trade deal between the EU and Mercosur, a South American trading bloc of which Brazil is the biggest player. The deal, decades in the making, was agreed on in principle this year but has yet to be ratified; it requires the support of each of the parliaments of all participating countries. Claiming that Mr Bolsonaro had lied to him, Mr Macron said: “The decisions and statements from Brazil these recent weeks show clearly that President Bolsonaro has decided to not respect his commitments on the climate, nor to involve himself on the issue of biodiversity.”

Data from the European Union's Earth observation programme show aerosols from the burning forest sweeping from the Amazon down through Brazil’s distant south-east coast (see map).