At a September 2021 public hearing in Manaus<\/a>, Philip Fearnside read from a prepared statement laying out his case against repaving BR-319, the highway between Manaus and Porto Velho, two cities in the Amazon. He called the project economically unviable, argued Brazil\u2019s licensing process was broken, and warned that road would trigger \u201ccatastrophic\u201d deforestation.<\/p>\nPeople in the crowd started booing. Fearnside tried to keep speaking over the noise in his American-accented Portuguese, but someone killed his microphone.<\/p>\n
He was followed by S\u00e9rgio Kruke from the Movimento Conservador Amazonas, a vocal ally of then-president Jair Bolsonaro. Kruke pointed at Fearnside and asked why an American had any business telling Brazilians what to do with their land, adding that they had the right to cut down every tree in the forest if they chose. The audience cheered him on. \u201cThis house is ours!\u201d Kruke shouted.<\/p>\n