Torture apologist/homophobe/racist Jair Bolsonaro — whose successful election to the Brazilian presidency was the result of a conspiracy among the wealthy and senior prosecutors and judges, who subverted the justice system in order to ensure that his rival was kept off the ballot — has presided over record-breaking Amazon deforestation.
The deforestation was revealed by a Brazilian government report, and Bolsonaro's only response to it so far has been to fire the minister who oversaw the report's production.
This week, a journalist pressed him on the question of deforestation, agriculture and the climate, to which Bolsonaro responded that "It's enough to eat a little less. You talk about environmental pollution. It's enough to poop every other day. That will be better for the whole world."
Official figures suggest that the biggest reason for felling trees there is to create new pastures for cattle.Over the past decade, previous governments managed to reduce deforestation by means of concerted action by federal agencies and a system of fines.
But Mr Bolsonaro and his ministers have criticised the penalties and overseen a dramatic fall in confiscations of timber and convictions for environmental crimes.
Jair Bolsonaro: 'Poop every other day' to protect the environment [BBC]
(Image: Fábio Rodrigues Pozzebom/Agência Brasil, CC-BY, modified; Dikshajhingan, CC BY-SA, modified)
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