One voice needed over Amazon fires

French President Emmanuel Macron has called the raging fires in the Amazon rainforest "an international crisis" and threatened to pull out of a planned trade deal with Brazil and its regional partners should the latter fail to respond properly. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sees a need for international action "to extinguish the fires and to protect habitat and biodiversity". And even the leader of the United States, a famous disbeliever in climate change, has offered to help deal with them.

Although he has finally decided to dispatch armed forces to fight the fires, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called Macron's comments "sensationalist", and responding to accusations that the fires are due to his alleged connivance in the aggressive exploitation of the Brazilian rainforest, he attributed the fires to dry, hot weather and the deliberate actions of nongovernmental organizations whose funding has been cut.

He has reason to argue that the fires are an "internal issue" of Brazil and the countries directly involved. But the consequences will be felt far beyond those countries. For that alone, it is no exaggeration to address it as an "international crisis". And there is nothing inappropriate in the calls for international assistance, especially considering the Amazon forests produce about 20 percent of the world's oxygen.