2019's fires have been tied to Jair Bolsonaro, a climate change-denying populist and Brazil's president as of January 2019.
2019's fires have been tied to Jair Bolsonaro, a climate change-denying populist and Brazil's president as of January 2019. Bolsonaro's changing policies have allowed rampant burning of land around the rainforest to clear land for agriculture; these fires spread easily to the forest itself. The three Brazilian states with the worst increase in fire in 2019 have local governments led by Bolsonaro's allies, and his government intends to prevent conservation in the rainforest, according to reporting from The Atlantic's Robinson Meyer. Bolsonaro authorized the Brazilian military to fight the fires late in August, but people around the world continue to criticize his role in the environmental catastrophe.