Amazon fires – Brazil mocks Macron for failing to stop ‘avoidable’ Notre Dame blaze as Bolsanaro rejects £18m from ‘colonialist’ G7 leaders
BURNING Brazil has re-ignited its war of words with Emmanuel Macron by accusing him of failing to stop the "avoidable" Notre Dame cathedral blaze.
President Jair Bolsonaro's chief of staff mocked the French leader hours after his boss rejected an £18m Amazon blaze aid package from "colonialist" G7 leaders.
Onyx Lorenzoni told the G1 news website that “we appreciate (the offer), but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe”.
And in a continuation of a very public spat between France and Brazil, he then suggested the aid was hypocritical in light of the devastating fire at the 900-year-old Paris cathedral in April.
“Macron cannot even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church that is a world heritage site. What does he intend to teach our country?” he said.
Bolsonaro turned down the G7's offer to help save the burning Amazon rain forest just as new Nasa pictures revealed the full scale of the blaze.
He accused the West of treating Brazil like "a colony" after President Macron launched the aid plan at the summit in Biarritz.
International leaders later agreed to provide logistical and financial support to help tackle the raging fires in the the world's largest rain forest.
Mr Macron revealed G7 countries were prepared to release the £18m during a crunch meeting noticeably missed by Donald Trump.
However, Mr Bolsonaro said Mr Macron's plan of an "alliance" to "save" the Amazon treated Brazil "as if we were a colony or no man's land".
A record number of fires are now burning in Brazil - mostly in the Amazon - according to the country's space research agency.
The funding pledge was made as the leaders of the G7 - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US - met in France.
Mr Macron had said the funds would be made available ";immediately" - mainly to pay for extra firefighting planes.
He then added that France would also "offer concrete support with military in the region within the next few hours".
Mr Macron said the Amazon - while mostly Brazilian - is a world issue and his message to Mr Bolsonaro was: "We cannot allow you to destroy everything."
Amid tensions with Bolsonaro over what he believes is his pursuit of economic growth at the expense of the forest, Macron added: "We respect your sovereignty. It's your country."
But he also called the Amazon "the lungs of the planet" and said: "The Amazon forest is a subject for the whole planet.
"We can help you reforest. We can find the means for your economic development that respects the natural balance. But we cannot allow you to destroy everything."
However, Mr Bolsonaro then accused the French leader of launching "unreasonable and gratuitous attacks against the Amazon region."
He then accused the French leader of "hiding his intentions behind the idea of an alliance of G7 countries".
When Mr Trump was asked whether he attended the meeting on climate change which discussed the Amazon crisis he replied “We’re having it in a little while.”
He did not appear to hear when one reporter then pointed out to him that it had already taken place.
News of the G7 cash pledge came as Leonardo DiCaprio donated more than £4m in help to the Amazon rain forest.
The 44-year-old actor has pledged the money through his environmental foundation, Earth Alliance, which he created with philanthropists Laurene Powell Jobs and Brian Sheth.
Earlier we reported how Hercules warplanes are now being used to dump thousands of gallons of water onto more than 9,000 wild fires in the Amazon.
The emergency move comes amid mounting fury over the shocking ongoing destruction of the planet's largest tropical rain forest.
Bolsonaro ordered the sudden military intervention to combat multiple blazes now raging out of control.
A video posted by the country's defence ministry later showed a military plane raining water down onto fires below.
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Around 44,000 troops are now on alert and some troops are already heading to six Brazilian states that asked for help.
The states affected by the massive blazes are Roraima, Rondonia, Tocantins, Para, Acre and Mato Grosso.
The military's first mission will be carried out by 700 troops around the city of Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia.
The military is using two C-130 Hercules aircraft capable of dumping up to 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons) of water onto the fires.
The Brazilian military operations came after widespread criticism of Bolsonaro's handling of the environmental crisis.
He has long described the protection of the rain forest as an obstacle to Brazil's economic development.
The Amazon fires have become a global issue escalating tensions between Brazil and European countries who believe Bolsonaro has neglected commitments to protect biodiversity.
Protesters gathered outside Brazilian diplomatic missions in European and Latin American cities Friday, and demonstrators also marched in Brazil.
'The planet's lungs are on fire. Let's save them! ' read a sign at a protest outside Brazil's embassy in Mexico City.
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The dispute also spilled over into the economic arena when French leader Emmanuel Macron threatened to block a EU trade deal with Brazil on the back of the blazes.
"First we need to help Brazil and other countries put out these fires," he said at the weekend.
The goal is to "preserve this forest that we all need because it is a treasure of our biodiversity and our climate thanks to the oxygen that it emits and thanks to the carbon it absorbs," he said.
About 60 per cent of the Amazon region is in Brazil; the vast forest also spans parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru and Suriname.
