Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All

by Michael Shellenberger

Greenpeace’s agenda fit neatly into the agenda of European farmers to exclude low-cost Brazilian food from the European Union. The two European nations that were the most critical of deforestation and fires in the Amazon also happened to be the two countries whose farmers most resisted the Mercosur free trade agreement with Brazil: France and Ireland. “Brazilian farmers want to extend [the free trade agreement] EU-Mercosur,” noted Nepstad, “but [French president Emmanuel] Macron is inclined to shut it down because the French farm sector doesn’t want more Brazilian food products coming into the country.”63 Indeed, it was President Macron who started the global news media fervor about Amazon deforestation just a few days before France hosted the G7 meeting. Macron said France would not ratify a major trade deal between Europe and Brazil so long as Brazil’s president did nothing to reduce deforestation. In Brussels, the capital of the European Commission, the attacks on Brazil by France and Ireland “raised eyebrows,” noted Forbes business reporter Dave Keating. “These also happen to be the two countries who have been most vocally opposed to the Mercosur deal on protectionist grounds.”