{"id":148854,"date":"2019-12-02T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T12:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=148854"},"modified":"2019-12-10T08:42:58","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T08:42:58","slug":"brazils-president-is-blaming-leonardo-dicaprio-for-the-amazon-forest-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/12\/brazils-president-is-blaming-leonardo-dicaprio-for-the-amazon-forest-fires\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil\u2019s President Is Blaming Leonardo DiCaprio for the Amazon Forest Fires"},"content":{"rendered":"
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cnn<\/p><\/div>\n

1 Dec 2019 – <\/em>The unprecedented fires<\/a> that burned through the Amazon in August had several culprits: farmers clearing land for cattle ranching, anti-indigenous activists attempting to drive away tribes who live in the rainforest<\/a>, and lax enforcement of environmental protections by Brazil\u2019s far-right government. But now, President Jair Bolsonaro is blaming another unlikely culprit: American actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio.<\/p>\n

In what activists say is an attempt to direct attention away from his government\u2019s actions, Bolsonaro has repeatedly accused nonprofit organizations<\/a> of purposefully setting fires in the Amazon to solicit donations from wealthy donors such as DiCaprio\u2014an assertion that he offered no evidence to back up.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, police arrested four members of\u00a0the Alter do Ch\u00e3o fire brigade<\/a>, whom they accused of setting some of the fires that ravaged parts of the northern Brazilian state of Par\u00e1 in September. Critics said the move was politically motivated, and the BBC reports<\/a> that a judge refused to let the men out on bail.<\/p>\n

This week, Bolsonaro appeared to lend credence to rumors<\/a> circulating on social media that the environmental NGO World Wildlife Fund (WWF) bought photos from the Alter do Ch\u00e3o brigade to solicit donations from people like DiCaprio\u2014an accusation that both DiCaprio and the WWF have denied<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NGO people, what did they do? What\u2019s easier? Set fire to the bush,\u201d Bolsonaro said in a Facebook Live video<\/a>. \u201cTake photo, film, send it to an NGO, the NGO spreads it out, does a campaign against Brazil, gets in touch with Leonardo DiCaprio and Leonardo DiCaprio donates $500,000 to this NGO.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation<\/a> funds organizations and projects that \u201cprotect vulnerable wildlife from extinction, while restoring balance to threatened ecosystems and communities.\u201d The Amazon forest is often called \u201cthe Earth\u2019s lungs\u201d for its ability to absorb the world\u2019s greenhouse gases, and the DiCaprio Foundation said this summer that it would match donations to the Amazon Frontlines, <\/a>an activist group that campaigns for indigenous people living in the Amazon, in 2019. But, like many other high-profile individuals, DiCaprio also shared outdated or misleading<\/a> photos of the fires, fueling conspiracy theories on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Instagram, DiCaprio fought back against Bolsonaro\u2019s accusations, saying he remains \u201ccommitted to supporting the Brazilian indigenous communities, local governments, scientists, educators and general public who are working tirelessly to secure the Amazon for the future of all Brazilians.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B5fsQ_vFUN3\/?utm_source=ig_embed<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 qz.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Dec 2019 – In what activists say is an attempt to direct attention away from his government\u2019s actions, Bolsonaro has repeatedly accused nonprofit organizations of purposefully setting fires in the Amazon. Now President Jair Bolsonaro is blaming another unlikely culprit: American actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":148858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,180,53],"tags":[229,536,1176,547,239,686,794,401,1393,993,1200,109],"class_list":["post-148854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-brics","category-latin-america-and-the-caribbean","tag-activism","tag-amazonia","tag-bolsonaro","tag-brazil","tag-brics","tag-climate-change","tag-deforestation","tag-environment","tag-forest-fires","tag-global-warming","tag-natures-rights","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}