“I have spent all my life here, and when I saw that the place I live in was on fire I couldn’t take no other action but to use my voice to engage people around the country to defend our rainforest,” Santos added to Newsweek on Thursday.
“Last Monday afternoon, the population of São Paulo was surprised to see the city going dark at 3 p.m. from the heavy smoke billowing from the fires in the North. And that made us understand one thing: it doesn’t matter if we’re northerners or southerners,” he concluded. “Whether you are living on the banks of the river or an executive working in the city. The dismantling of environmental policies will affect all of us.”
Although scientists are confident people are behind the fires, Bolsonaro claimed his administration was not to blame, but rather his ecological opponents who wanted to make him look bad, according to The Washington Post.
Updated Thursday, August 22 at 10: 14 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include the correct number of signatures. The headline and photo caption were corrected to properly reflect this change. A statement from the petition’s creator was also added.
