By: Raheemat Alade
OwlFeed Media Editor 

In three weeks, thousands of acres of the Amazon have been burned down, affecting the animals and plant ecosystems as well as polluting the Brazilian air. 

The Amazon is known as the “lungs of the earth,” producing 20% of the Earth’s oxygen. This has caused significant damages to Brazil’s environment, its citizens, and especially its government.

In a gesture proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US (also known as the G7), offered President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil €20 million Euros with $12 million from Britain and $11 million from Canada, separately. The money was intended to fight the forest fires and provide aid. 

The president declined angrily, quoting from The LA Times, “he accused the leaders of embracing colonialism by telling Brazil what to do.” 

President Bolsonaro then continued by accusing the French President of having a “colonialist mindset” and to “mind their own business,” according to The New York Times. The verbal fight between the two Presidents continued, even getting personal, making fun of family members and calling each other “liars.”

Brazil’s government refused to work things out with the French government. They said that the money should go “to reforest Europe” and should also go into the Norte Dame since “Macron is unable to avoid a preventable fire in a church that is at a World Heritage Site and he wants to show us what is for our country? He has a lot to look after at home and the French colonies,” Onyx Lorenzoni (Brazilian federal deputy) said to CNN reporters. 

The two countries were supposed to meet last month, but Mr. Bolsonaro got a haircut instead of complying with the French foreign minister, which was viewed as an insult to France. 

After declining the G7’s proposal, the Brazilian government accepted the $12 million from Britain to fight the fires in the Amazon. Brazil also accepts four planes from Chile to help fight the amazon fires. 

Earlier this year both Germany and Norway suspended their donations to the Amazon because of “doubts over Brazil’s efforts to reduce deforestation,” and because “the Brazilian government dissolved the fund’s steering and technical committees,” according to CNN. 

Some world leaders have criticized Mr. Bolsonaro on how he has been handling the fires since he gained office in 2018. He has been praised by President Trump, who tweeted, “He is working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the people of Brazil — Not easy. He and his country have the full and complete support of the USA!”

Amazon nations (Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, an overseas region of France) are taking action in finding a strategy in “preserving the environment” and “exploration sustainable in our region,” Bolsonaro said to the LA Times after meeting with Chilean President Sebastián Piñera. 

 In an opinion story, the New York Times blamed Mr. Bolsonaro for the international crisis which, saying that he caused it upon himself for “not wanting to protect more indigenous land.”