Joe Biden’s election this month as U.S. president is expected to ramp up the pressure European governments and a growing number of corporations are exerting on right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to address deforestation in his country’s Amazon region. But it is unclear whether assertive U.S. involvement will do more than escalate an ongoing war of words that pro-conservation nations have waged with Bolsonaro, who views restrictions on Amazon land clearing as unnecessary impediments to economic development. The largely European-led campaign to press Bolsonaro on rainforest protection began in August of 2019, when French President Emmanuel Macron made the subject a prominent agenda item at the G7 meeting in Biarritz, France. Bolsonaro objected, portraying the move as foreign meddling in his country’s affairs, saying “the Amazon is ours” and calling his own government’s deforestation data “lies.” The jousting intensified on June 29 of this year, when Macron... [Log in to read more]