Lula responds to Mark Ruffalo’s criticism of the Amazon Summit – 08/14/2023 – Environment

President Lula (PT) responded this Sunday (13) to criticisms made by American actor Mark Ruffalo to the final text of the Amazon Summit. The interpreter of the character Hulk, as well as other environmentalists, pointed out that the declaration of the meeting does not have concrete goals for the protection of the Amazon rainforest.

The actor had published an opinion piece in the British newspaper The Guardian on August 6, in which he drew attention to the meeting that brought together the leaders of countries that make up the biome. Days later, last Thursday (10), Ruffalo wrote messages directed at Lula on his profile on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

“It breaks my heart to see that the Declaration of Belém of the #AmazonSummit does not have concrete goals to protect the forest”, he said.

The actor praised Lula, calling him “one of my heroes”, and said that it was thanks to the president’s leadership that the summit “established fundamental protections for indigenous peoples”. Ruffalo, however, assessed that “this alone will not prevent the collapse of the forest”.

“The emergency to protect the Amazon is a climate emergency — and we don’t have time to waste,” he said.

This Sunday (13), Lula responded to the messages, also through his X page. “The Amazon Summit brought together countries in the region in an unprecedented way. It was one more step on a path to transform the region with a model that sustainable development and environmental preservation”, published the PT.

Lula also defended that the summit text established several mechanisms for the protection of the Amazon rainforest. “It is the starting point for building a consensus around the protection of the Amazon. And the countries of South America are aware of this importance”, he added.

The president ended the series of messages sending a hug to Ruffalo and inviting him to visit the Amazon soon.

For environmental NGOs, the final text of the summit failed to have goals to eliminate deforestation in the forest and to stop oil exploration in the region, among other points.