Who's Burning the Amazon?
SEPTEMBER 13, 2019
by KELSEY HAWKINS-JOHNSON
While the world watches in horror as fires rage in the Amazon, activists are naming culprits.
“Put out the flames, we name your names — politicians, corporate vultures, you’re the ones we blame,” demonstrators chanted as they marched from the White House to the Brazilian Consulate on September 5.
The fires are no accident. Most have been set by agribusiness and mining interests hoping to make money off the land.
Much of the blame has fallen on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has steadily rolled back indigenous land rights and environmental protections. But the multinational companies turning a profit off the destruction of the Amazon are also coming under more scrutiny.
Amazon Watch, a California-based organization that works with indigenous and environmental groups, issued a report earlier this year documenting dozens of companies that stand to make money off the catastrophe.
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/09/13/whos-burning-the-amazon/