Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro Says The Country Doesn’t Have The Money To Fight The Forest Fires

Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro says his country can’t afford to fight the massive fires that have been tearing through the Amazon rainforest for three weeks.

Bolsonaro is currently facing major backlash for his lack of action in resolving the current deforestation that is looking at record-high numbers in the Amazon. Reports show the wildfires are up 85 percent from the same period last year, most of which, erupted in the Amazon region. As the largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is described as the lungs of the earth, as it is a ”vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming.”

However, in his continued attempt to overlook the severity of the situation, Bolsonaro repeated claims accusing non-government groups of setting the blazes in response to being defunded by his administration. When asked if he had any proof, Bolsonaro responded saying: “The Indians, do you want me to blame the Indians? Do you want me to blame the Martians?… Everyone is a suspect, but the biggest suspects are NGOs.” He added, “Did I accuse NGOs directly? I just said I suspect them,” he said on Thursday. He went on to combat the suggestion to have the ministry send 40 men out to fight the fire. “Forty men, to fight a fire? There aren’t the resources. This chaos has arrived,” he said.

So far the blazes have cut through parts of the states of Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará and Mato Grosso, which forced Amazonas to declare a state of emergency earlier this month, Euro News reported.