Brazil's Vice President invites Leonardo DiCaprio for eight-hour hike in the Amazon

Brazil’s Vice President Hamilton Mourao reportedly challenged Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio to an eight-hour hike in Amazon in a bid to show him that rainforest is t actually burning. Days after DiCaprio shared an Instagram video of world’s biggest rainforest in flames, Mourao, who hes task force on fighting deforestation, invited Hollywood star to walk through jungle and understand how things work in ‘immense region’. 

Mourao, at an event on sustainable development in Amazon organised by National Industrial Confederation (CNI), reportedly said that he would like to invite ‘most recent critic’, DiCaprio, to come with him to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira (in rrn Brazil) and walk eight hours through jungle. Vice President furr ded that Hollywood actor will get a better understanding of how things work. 

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DiCaprio, who is also an outspoken environmentalist, has been spotted his opinions on issues that needed to be raised. Last week, while taking to Instagram, DiCaprio shared a post with a caption that cited satellite data from Brazil’s ncy, INPE, showing number of fires in Brazilian Amazon in July increased 28 per cent year-on-year, with early numbers for August also showing an increase. In post. DiCaprio also wrote that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is under pressure internationally to curb fires, but he has publicly doubted severity of m in past claiming opponents and indigeus communities were responsible. 

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Bolsonaro calls Amazon fires a ‘lie’ 

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro has been facing international condemnation for presiding over rising deforestation and huge fires in Amazon last year. Recently, he also denied existence of fires in Amazon rainforest and called it a "lie”. Bolsonaro’s comments came after a data was released by his own government that showed that area has been deeply affected by fire. Reports suggest that last year as well, Bolsonaro denied a surge in fires that resulted in a global outcry. 

According to reports, last year Bolsonaro also interfered in data released by Inpe on Amazon deforestation as it was going against his statement. He even fired ncy’s he Ricardo Galvao after he defended his ncy’s numbers that showed rising destruction. In a speech me by Bolsonaro, he reportedly said that Brazil can protect Amazon alone as majority of forest is still standing. He ded that Amazon is a wet forest and does t catch fire as he continued to blame media and foreign governments for spreing a false narrative. 

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