Brasilia, August 12 (RHC)-- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says he has a plan to protect the environment: "Defecate less, every other day."  His comments came after a journalist questioned his solution to preserving the environment as well as developing the agricultural industry. 

“It’s enough to eat a little less.  You talk about environmental pollution.  It's enough to poop every other day.  That will be better for the whole world."  

Bolsonaro’s answer was heavily criticized on social media, as one can imagine.  One commentator even accused the Brazilian president of "being full of it."  Another critic said it was not enough for the right-wing leader to deny that climate change exists, but Bolsonaro also has to mock those who are trying to preserve the environment.

Jair Bolsonaro has been under fire for increasing deforestation in the Amazon and threats to Indigenous communities.   The Amazon saw an 88 percent increase in deforestation in June 2019 compared with the same month in 2018 according to Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (INPE). 

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached 2,254.8 square kilometers in July, an area 278 percent larger than the surface affected by the phenomenon in the same month last year, the space agency data showed. 

The publication led to the dismissal of the former head of the institution, Ricardo Magnus Osorio Galvao Monday.  The Brazilian president claimed that Galvao was “at the service of some nongovernmental organization,” to harm both Brazil and its government.

The government replaced him with Darton Policarpo Damiao, a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) officer, as interim head of the institution Tuesday.  Bolsonaro has given the authority over the Amazonian forest to the agriculture ministry and while often speaking of mining in the largest rainforest which is also home to the Indigenous people of Brazil.