As outrage grows online and overseas, environmental activists are taking to the streets to protest what they say is inaction by the Brazilian president on raging wildfires in the Amazon rainforest.
The world’s largest rainforest has seen an 84 per cent increase in wildfires year-over-year, according to the National Institute of Space Research.
With more than 74,000 burning so far, it has made for the highest number recorded since records began in 2013.
WATCH: Protests over Amazon fires occur outside Brazilian embassy in London
While they can sometimes occur naturally, scientists say the wildfires, in this case, were set deliberately.
Cattle farmers are chipping away at the forest, illegally clearing the way for ranching and causing widening deforestation.
Environmentalists blame President Jair Bolsonaro for bolstering the farmers’ neglect of the rainforest. The pro-business president has vowed to grow Brazil’s economy by finding other uses for the Amazon and activists believe his rhetoric has only emboldened farmers to cut away at more land for their own purposes.
The anger has spread as quickly as the fires — from online advocacy, criticism from international leaders and celebrity support. Now, the protest has set its sights on Brazilian embassies around the world.
On Friday, outside the Brazilian embassy in Paris, hundreds of climate activists staged a demonstration.
They held signs that read “Pray for Amazonia,” “Amazonia stays!!! Bolsonaro leaves!!!” and “Sans foret c’est foutu,” which translates to “without forests we’re doomed.”
Some protesters marched partially nude, covered in fake blood, with the words “farmers guilty” written in black lettering across their chests.
The protesters are calling on the Brazilian president to do more to halt the fires.
French President Emmanuel Macron and U.N. Secretary General António Guterres expressed concerns about wildfires that are raging in the Amazon one day earlier. Macron and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau both see the situation as an “international crisis.”
Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly stood in the face of criticism surrounding the fires and his environmental policies, responded angrily to what he regarded as meddling.
The dispute between Bolsonaro and Macron worsened on Friday, when Macron’s office said Bolsonaro was lying when Bolsnaro played down concerns about climate change at the G20 summit in Japan in June.
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A similar protest took place in Bern, Switzerland on Friday.
Protesters gathered in the streets holding photographs of the fires in Brazil. Several held signs that said “Boycott Brazil.”
Climate activist group Extinction Rebellion said protesters were also gathering at the Brazilian embassy in London calling on Bolsonaro to protect the Amazon rainforest.
In Nicosia, Cyprus, protesters wore gas masks and staged a sit-in outside the Brazillian Embassy there.
WATCH: Amazon fire protest rally held in front of Brazilian embassy in Munich
The fires
Brazil has approximately 60 per cent of the Amazon, which stretches 670 million hectares in total, but it is also shared with places like Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay.
Bolsonaro has said his government will implement measures to quell the fires, but it’s not clear what those measures may be.
On Friday, the head of Brazil’s armed forces said the Brazilian army is ready to “defend and repel any kind of threat” to the rainforest.”
Concrete measures are said to be a topic of discussion at the annual G7 summit in France this week.
— With files from The Associated Press and Reuters
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