Tesla and SpaceX chief executive officer Elon Musk recently met with Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro to discuss connectivity and other projects in the Amazon rainforest.
The meeting, held in a luxurious resort in Sao Paulo state, was organized by Communications Minister Fábio Faria, who has said he is seeking partnerships with the world’s richest man to bring or improve internet in schools and health facilities in rural areas using technology developed by SpaceX and Starlink, and also to preserve the rainforest.
“Super excited to be in Brazil for launch of Starlink for 19,000 unconnected schools in rural areas & environmental monitoring of Amazon,” Musk tweeted Friday morning.
Illegal activities in the vast Amazon rainforest are monitored by several institutions, such as the national space agency, federal police and environmental regulator Ibama.
But deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has surged under Bolsonaro, reaching its highest annual rate in more than a decade, according to official data from the national space agency. Bolsonaro’s critics say he is largely to blame, having emboldened loggers and land grabbers with his fervent support for development of the region.
During the event, Bolsonaro said the region was “really important” to Brazil.
“We count on Elon Musk so that the Amazon is known by everyone in Brazil and in the world, to show the exuberance of this region, how we are preserving it, and how much harm those who spread lies about this region are doing to us,” he said.
Bolsonaro and Musk appeared in a video transmitted live on the president’s Facebook account, standing together on a stage and answering questions from a group of students.
“A lot can be done to improve quality of life through technology,” Musk told the crowd.
Although none of the students asked about Musk’s prospective purchase of Twitter, Bolsonaro said that it represented a “breath of hope.”
“Freedom is the cement for the future,” he said, calling the billionaire a “legend of freedom.”
Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, but said this week the deal can’t go forward until the company provides information about how many accounts on the platform are spam or bots.
Like Musk, Bolsonaro has sought to position himself as a champion of free speech and opposed the deplatforming of individuals including his ally, former U.S. President Donald Trump.
The meeting with Bolsonaro occurs just five months before the far-right leader will seek a second term in a hotly anticipated election.
Between the Trumps, Putins and Bolsonaros of the world and the people that buys their lies and BS, I suspect our planet and the world as we know it will cease to exist in a couple of decades. Sad that ignorance and selfishness will change the lives of our children for the worst.
BLESS ELON MUSK………..STOPPING THE LOGGERS ARE A GREAT & WONDERFUL WAY TO SAVE THE RAIN FOREST….THANK GOD FOR THE GREAT SAVES PRESIDENT TRUMP DID IN HIS 4 YEARS OF MAGA……..
What “great saves” did Trump did? Trump did nothing beneficial to our nation BUT to encourage lies, innuendos, additional transfer of more wealth to the ultrarich and almost ended our republic in an effort to illegally stay in power.
Have you NOT SEEM the evidences?
I guess some people just see what they want to see….
Apparently you really do.
That is a gate that swings both ways…you also only see what you want to see. I am not in any way rich, much less ultra rich but I was tens times better off when President Trump was in office. $1.89 gas as opposed to $4.69 gas…and that fuel cost increase passes on to food, clothing, heating/ ac,. Interest rates are more than double for home mortgages than they were even a year ago…
How can you not see the many Trump actions that benefit all Americans ! You are blind if you fail to see the horrendous effect of the Biden policies which reversed Trump policies.
This is a reply to all your comments.
First, The inflation and the price of gas is a WORLDWIDE issue, not just the USA. The price of oil (currently $120 a barrel) is set by market price in the world. The FACT that Biden release oil from the strategic reserves is actually the reason we pay around $5 a gallon and not $9 like in Europe. You want to blame oil shortage, blame it on Russia invasion of Ukraine and the fact that Saudi Arabia and other producers have not make up the shortage. Personally, If I was Biden, i would make my peace with Iran and Venezuela and let them back into the market. Oil company profit is a percentage so the higher the price per gallon, the higher the profit…maybe that is something we should look into.
Second. The price of oil affects everything else as all requires transportation. So does demand. The more people that want to drive or flight somewhere (after been stuck at home for 2 years for COVID) the more the price of gas will increase.
It would be very helpful if people actually understand how pricing and the economy works before assigning blame or just swallow the propaganda that is been fed
The only thing I would blame Biden for is the shortage of baby formula as that should have been foreseen when the biggest factory was close….and the rush exit from Afghanistan (which was just trying to complied with the deal made by Trump with the Taliban)
We did not have inflation or high gas prices when Trump was president. More people were working with higher wages than ever before.
Trump was arrogant but he cared about the people of America, unlike Biden.