On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver took a deep dive into the disastrous environmental impact of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro since taking office in 2019.
"Bolsonaro has been an absolute disaster for the Amazon, a rainforest that is critical for Brazil and you know, the Planet Earth," said Oliver.
The country's worst fire season in a decade took place in August with an average of 1,000 fires per day. This is not due to natural extreme weather conditions, but due to the fact that forests are cut down and trees are burned to clear the land for industrial use.
There are over one thousand fires a day. "That is a lot of fires." said Oliver. If you asked me what happened in the Amazon 1000 times a day, my first thought would be capybaras. Explanation. Frog birthday parties are my second. There must be at least 5,000 of them with a birthday every day and we assume there are some combined parties for convenience. No one of my guesses would be a fire.
Though he delivered the segment with these signature jokes, Oliver highlighted a vital point, the devastating impact of this deforestation as it encroachments on land where Indigenous people live, putting immense pressure on communities to defend their land against threats, invasions, and illegal exploitation of natural resources.
"They have been forced to confront these loggers, ranchers, and miners on their own, which can be both dangerous and dispiriting," said Oliver.
When someone feels they have permission from the most powerful person in the country, it's hard to fight them. If I stole your wallet and then played a clip of Biden saying "Hey, John, I don't give a shit if TV hosts rob their audience members" If you're going to excuse me, I have to say 10 wrong or weird things in a row on 60 Minutes.
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