Brazil's Environment Minister - Ricardo Salles
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 538 Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2019
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The number of forest fires burning in the Amazon rainforest may have dropped since the global alarm was raised in August, but Brazil’s Government is still feeling intense political heat. Stephen Sackur interviews Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, who is in Europe trying to convince sceptics that President Bolsonaro’s government is not prioritising economic exploitation at the expense of environmental protection. How credible are the Brazilian Government’s soothing words?
Image: Ricardo Salles (Credit: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:07.0 | Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it. Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World |
| 0:14.3 | Service with me, Stephen Sacker. A couple of months ago, images of swathes of the vast Amazon rainforest ablaze rang alarm bells across the world. |
| 0:24.7 | President Macron of France declared the forest to be the lungs of the world and said protection |
| 0:30.3 | was a global responsibility. That kind of language finds no favour with the current Brazilian |
| 0:36.9 | government led by the pro-business populist Jaya Bolsonaro. |
| 0:41.3 | His question, the global consensus on global warming, and accused those governments who have suspended environmental funding assistance to Brazil of having a colonialist mindset. |
| 0:53.3 | My guest today is Environment Minister in Mr. Bolsonaro's government, |
| 0:58.2 | Ricardo Salas. Mr. Salas's own record as a lawyer and pro-business politician suggests he shares |
| 1:05.0 | many of the opinions and priorities of his boss. So just how credible are Brazil's assurances that it will not prioritize economic |
| 1:14.0 | exploitation at the expense of environmental protection? Well, Ricardo Salas joins me now. Welcome |
| 1:20.9 | to Hard Talk. Thank you very much. Thanks for asking us for you. |
| 1:24.8 | Would you accept that the global concern raised by the sweeping forest fires that we saw in August, |
| 1:33.1 | burning swathes of Amazon rainforests, would you accept that that has put a new level of scrutiny |
| 1:39.5 | on the actions of the Brazilian government? |
| 1:42.1 | Definitely, it's true. |
| 1:46.8 | We were already concerned about this problem of the Brazilian government. Definitely. It's true. We were already concerned about this problem of the burn since it begins in the mid of July. And when all of the public opinion and |
| 1:54.3 | people have raised this question, we also get into it and try to make the solutions faster |
| 1:59.4 | and more intensive. And we'll talk about solutions, specific responses from your government, |
| 2:04.8 | but it just strikes me as interesting that in that concern expressed from many parts of the world |
| 2:11.4 | about what Brazil was up to, senior members of the Brazilian government chose to speak out |
| 2:16.2 | questioning the science on the idea of man-made |
... |
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