Our Saviours

Even for the most thrusting executive, there are few things more inconvenient for the career than the extinction of the purchasing species. Accordingly, and only a little more than a quarter of a century after it might have done some good, a few of the world's owners have decided that the destruction of the Amazon ought perhaps to be slowed for the time being rather than accelerated further. An American clothing corporation has suspended purchases of Brazilian leather until the fuss dies down, and a number of financial companies have issued polite murmurs of discontent. No doubt the Bolsonaro government will simply proclaim that the foreign colonialists are using underhand methods to undermine competition from brave little Brazil; which is, of course, one of many sound patriotic reasons why the Johnson junta is panting for a deal with the wildfire entrepreneurs.