Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT JAIR Bolsonaro has accused actor Leonardo DiCaprio of funding non-profit groups which he blames for devastating fires in the Amazon rainforest.
Bolsonaro’s remarks, which were not backed up with proof, were part of a wider government campaign against environmental nonprofit groups operating in Brazil.
“DiCaprio is a cool guy, isn’t he? Giving money to set the Amazon on fire,” the president said to supporters in Brasilia.
DiCaprio’s environmental organisation Earth Alliance has pledged $5 million (€4.5 million) to help protect the Amazon after a surge in fires destroyed large parts of the rainforest in July and August.
But the actor and committed environmentalist said in a statement his group had not funded any of the two nonprofits named by investigators so far.
“While worthy of support, we did not fund the organisations targeted,” the statement read.
“The future of these irreplaceable ecosystems is at stake and I am proud to stand with the groups protecting them.”
Some members of Bolsonaro’s administration argue that civil society groups and environmental laws hinder economic development in the region.
The criticism of DiCaprio and environmental activists follows a police raid at the headquarters of two nonprofit groups in the Amazonian state of Para earlier this week.
Local police also arrested four volunteer firefighters and say they are investigating them for allegedly igniting fires to obtain funding from sympathetic donors.
The volunteer firefighters denied any wrongdoing and a judge ordered their release.
Federal prosecutors say their investigations point to land-grabbers as primary suspects for fires in the area, not nonprofits or firefighters.
Cattle ranchers, farmers and illegal loggers have long used fire to clear land in the Amazon.
This is not the first time Brazil’s president has suggested, without evidence, that nonprofit groups are setting fires in the Amazon, or questioned warnings about climate change.
In August, in the midst of an international outcry over the Amazon fires, Bolsonaro blamed the “information war going on in the world against Brazil” and fired the head of the governmental space research institute that monitors deforestation.
Any chance of luring all Taliban into one place and nuking them.
They’re defending there country would you liked to have put all the IRA men fighting in the troubles in the 70s in one place and nuke them.
@shane. If by ‘defending their country’ you in fact mean ‘ want to set up a neo caliphate and believe its their right to kill non believers’ then youre right. Otherwise no. ( wonder what they’ll do to beliebers?)
I know what you mean,but you can’t say that they don’t have a right to defend there land,alot of times is a farmer shooting at them because he’s pissed off at them for attracting attention of the taliban by trampling through his fields.not all muslims are extremist
@ Shane. Wow what an amazing like for like analogy!! Last time I checked, northern Irish paramilitaries were not burning down schools, refusing to allow women to be educated after the age of eight, forcing child marriage, or banning women from general hospitals.
Catholics were burnt out of there homes they could not get jobs and were basically excluded from politics.is that the reason the UN is there then,why arnt they in all the other Muslim countrys that this happens in.If say for instance Scotland invaded Ireland in the morning through no fault of your own would you just try and make the most of you and your family’s life or would you try do something about it.
The Taliban are not representative of the Pashtun people or the other diverse peoples of Afghanistan. Read up on your Afghan history.
So you think that there glad to have the UN there after all they can grow opium again after the taliban had banned it.Does anybody want foreign soldiers in there country I doubt it somehow
Yes actually I would Shane, they’re all scvm
Also learn the difference between there, their and they’re. What age are you? You clearly haven’t a clue about what’s going on. It’s NATO who are in charge of operations in Afghanistan, not the UN
I was replying to your nuke them all question
Shane – defending their country my hole. A bunch of nuts hiding behind a ‘religion of peace’ the majority of whom Re not even from Afghanistan. A bunch of thugs who terrorised a local populace.
The UN are there at the request of the Government of Afghanistan to assist it and the people of Afghanistan in laying the foundations for sustainable peace and development. As for your opium comment, Between 1996 and 1999 Mullah Omar reversed his opinions on the drug trade, apparently as it only harmed kafirs. The Taliban controlled 96% of Afghanistan’s poppy fields and made opium its largest source of taxation. Taxes on opium exports became one of the mainstays of Taliban income and their war economy.
Any more ‘facts’ Shane, or will you admit that your analogy is based on assumptions and poor research?
No mate I come here for questions and answers I can admit when I’m wrong.I thought the Americans went in after bin laden that they weren’t invited wasn’t the taliban in government they were fighting the northern alliance.
Germany rules large tracts of western European the early 40′s yet, would you agree that they were the rightful rulers?
Read what they (Taliban) did in Mazar-i-Sharif. Is this behaviour that is acceptable when assuming power?
I’m not saying I support the taliban any group that wants sharia law should not be aloud near politics at all.my point is that you can’t blame people who want to defend there land from invaders the farmers hate when troops come into there area becauae it attracts the taliban in for a fight,they just want to be left alone from both sides
Where are the bleeding hearts now…… Guess we have a good idea what the outcome of this will be…….
have your say