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A8 OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian Tuesday, August 27, 2019 Brazil’s Bolsonaro causes outrage over Amazon fires By LUIS ANDRES HENAO AND MARCELO DE SOUZA Associated Press PORTO VELHO, Brazil — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has insulted adver- saries and allies, disparaged women, blacks and homo- sexuals, and even praised his country’s 1964-85 dictator- ship. Yet, nothing has rallied more anger at home and crit- icism from abroad than his response to fires raging in parts of the Amazon region. The far-right populist leader initially dismissed the hundreds of blazes, and then questioned whether activist groups might have started the fires in an effort to dam- age the credibility of his gov- ernment, which has called for looser environmental regulations in the world’s largest rainforest to spur development. In response, European leaders threatened to end a trade deal with Brazil and other South American nations. Thousands of peo- ple have demonstrated in cit- ies across Brazil and outside Brazilian embassies around the world. #PrayforAma- zonia became a worldwide trending topic. Pope Francis added his voice to the chorus of concern, warning that the “lung of forest is vital for our planet.” Bolsonaro finally took a less confrontational approach Friday and announced he would send 44,000 soldiers to help battle the blazes, which mostly seem to be charring land deforested, perhaps ille- gally, for farming and ranch- ing rather than burning through stands of trees. Some say it’s not enough and comes too late. “No democratic govern- ment has suffered such inter- national criticism as Bolson- aro is going through,” said Mauricio Santoro, an inter- national relations profes- sor at Rio de Janeiro State University. “By breaching international environmen- tal agreements, Brazil has been discredited, blurred and unable to exercise any type AP Photo/Eraldo Peres A fire burns in highway margins in the city of Porto Velho, Rondonia state, part of Brazil’s Amazon, on Sunday. of leadership on the interna- tional stage.” Brazilian military planes began dumping water on fires in the Amazon state of Ron- donia over the weekend, and a few hundred of the prom- ised troops deployed into the fire zone. But many Brazil- ians again took to the streets in Rio de Janeiro and other cities Sunday to demand the administration do more. Some held banners that read: “Bol$onaro is burning our future.” Bolsonaro has previously described rainforest protec- tions as an obstacle to Bra- zil’s economic development. Critics say the record num- ber of fires this year has been stoked by his encourage- ment of farmers, loggers and ranchers to speed efforts to strip away forest. Although he has now vowed to protect the area, they say it is only out of fear of a diplomatic cri- sis and economic losses. “The international pres- sure today has a bigger impact than the demonstra- tions by Brazilians on the streets,” Santoro said. The leaders of the Group of Seven nations said Sun- day that they were prepar- ing a plan for helping Brazil battle the fires and repair the damage. French President Emman- uel Macron said the help would involve both technical and financial mechanisms “so that we can help them in the most effective way possible.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her coun- try and others will talk with Brazil about reforestation in the Amazon once the fires have been extinguished. “Of course (this is) Bra- zilian territory, but we have a question here of the rain- forests that is really a global question,” she said. “The lung of our whole Earth is affected, and so we must find common solutions.” Fires are common during Brazil’s dry season, but this year has set an alarm- ing record. The country’s National Space Research Institute, which monitors deforestation, has recorded more than 77,000 wildfires in Brazil this year. That is an 85% rise over last year, and about half of the fires have been in the Amazon region. “We’ve had eight months without any type of concrete action in defense of the Ama- zon,” said Rómulo Batista, a member of Greenpeace Bra- zil’s Amazonia Campaign. He said the flames licking over swaths of the Amazon are a reflection of Bolsonaro’s environmental policy. “The government created a sense of impunity among farmers who were willing to commit illegal acts to defor- est,” he said. “Thousands of species of plants and animals are being killed, many of them that we don’t even know. The popula- tion of nearby cities is suffer- ing terrible damage because they’re breathing that air and it’s causing them respiratory problems. And the rise in deforestation can completely alter the rain patterns by region and devastate agricul- ture, even in South America.” Staff photo by Kathy Aney J.J. Spriet prepares signage for the Pendleton Round-Up during a workday Saturday at the rodeo arena. Round-Up: Volunteers bring the grounds to life Continued from Page A1 for sponsors, spiffed the Let ‘er Buck Room and cleaned out flowerbeds. The to-do list is compre- hensive and diverse with something for everyone. “You see 50-year volun- teers paired with brand new volunteers getting it done,” O’Neill said. “The thing I find the most remarkable is that because this event occurs, it’s an opportunity to bring our community together. Without it, it seems like there would be a void.” O’Neill may be the head guy at the moment, but he has 26 years of volunteering under his belt too. He served as a pennant bearer during the Westward Ho! Parade. He worked with livestock, sorting, feeding and tagging cattle. He used his profes- sional expertise as a power company employee to make sure the lights work. “One of my favorite jobs was helping saddle trophy horses on championship Saturday,” he said. In recent years, the Round-Up spreads prep work such as turf replace- ment over a longer period of time to accommodate Staff photo by Kathy Aney Brooke Harley (left) and Corissa Schuening paint numbers in front of each box seat during a workday on Saturday to pre- pare for the Pendleton Round-Up. events, such as the Whisky Fest and the Green Mile Barrel Race. “By virtue of having these different events, we start earlier,” O’Neill said. He credits volunteers for helping boost the rodeo’s reputation into the strato- sphere. Last year, the Pro- fessional Rodeo Cowboy Association named the Round-Up the Large Rodeo of the Year for the fourth year in a row. The event also snagged USA Today’s 2019 Reader’s Choice Award. The rodeo’s fan base keeps increasing. Last year, ticket sales exceeded $1,300,914 compared with $1,164,136 in 2017. O’Neill said the esti- mated 1,000 volunteers and their tens of thousands of hours of work is one of the drivers. “I can’t stress enough how much they mean to us,” he said. “When the volun- teers get their hands on this place, it comes to life.” Physical Education: New requirements get kids up and moving Continued from Page A1 cally Active 2Day (BEPA 2.0), cost nearly $100 and provides classroom-based physical activities designed for elementary schoolers of all ages. Treadwell said donations from Lamb Weston helped OSU Extension provide the kits to different schools. They provide teachers with everything they need to lead activities from bean- bag balancing competitions to a hot-and-cold style game called “Find the Veggie,” all of which fit state physical education standards. “They reinforce a lot of classroom concepts as well,” Treadwell said. Katherine Gunter, a pro- fessor of kinesiology and OSU Extension statewide physical activity special- ist, designed the BEPA 2.0 kits and said that the link between physical activity and obesity prevention is pretty clear. In 2016, Gunter was part of a research team that found in-school activity in rural Oregon schools was related to overall health of Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Angie Treadwell (center front) leads a training on incorporating physical activity into the classroom. The training involves a variety of exercises to help schools meet physical educa- tion requirements. elementary students. She said that in low-in- come areas — particularly rural places where trans- portation can be an issue — physical activity in schools can make a world of difference. “We’ve got this pay- to-play culture, where it’s really hard if you’re a fam- ily that is struggling to make ends meet or having to make choices about where to invest. Paying for your child to be active can be a difficult decision to make,” Gunter said. Gunter said that the state’s efforts to increase physical education in schools is well-intentioned, but not perfect. “It’s a great best practice approach. Physical educa- tion is the best way for kids to have physical activity opportunity during school. But it came without a fund- ing allocation adequate to hire enough PE teachers,” she said. Creating the BEPA 2.0 kits is one solution, and even schools that might not be able to afford the full kits can purchase the curriculum book to help lead physical education activities in class- rooms. Many of the activ- ities, Gunter noted, don’t require equipment. The Pendleton School District is taking another route to reach the state man- date. There, homeroom teachers are leading PE classes in the gym twice a week in addition to regu- lar PE classes, according to Matt Yoshioka, curriculum, instruction and assessment director. Yoshioka said the man- date has created an unfor- tunate ultimatum for class- rooms — have homeroom teachers lead PE, or risk increasing class sizes by hir- ing another PE teacher. “(PE) is the only subject with the minimum number of requirements,” Yoshioka said. “All it has done is take minutes away from different subjects.” Yoshioka is not alone in his thinking. “The onus falls on the classroom teacher to some- how magically fit it in,” said Hermiston’s Sunset Elemen- tary Principal Jerad Farley. “I completely understand the genesis of this man- date. All of this comes from a great place. Having said that, there’re a lot of other mandates.” He said that Hermis- ton schools are currently working to strike a balance between health classes, PE classes and BEPA 2.0 activ- ities in order to fill in the minutes. Farley was principal at Rocky Heights Elementary last spring, where the BEPA 2.0 kits first made their dis- trict debut in kindergarten classes. “You should have seen the smiles on their faces. It reinforced the idea that physical activity is engaging for kids, and can have a pos- itive impact,” Farley said. Buses: Riding the bus leads to better attendance and higher chance for success Continued from Page A1 “Absolutely it does hap- pen. Addresses and phone numbers are always chang- ing. We’ve pushed families to reregister so we can have smoother first days and first bus rides,” Wyant said. Mid Columbia Bus Com- pany — which contracts with the Pendleton School District as well — runs 28 routes in the Hermiston School District, with buses holding anywhere from 15 to 84 students. Christie Sutherland, the manager for Mid Colum- bia’s Hermiston office, said that when a child isn’t reg- istered with the school and doesn’t know if they’re on the correct bus, the bus driver will first contact the “bus barn” to see if their address is on file with the company. If Mid Columbia doesn’t have the child’s address, the bus driver will radio the school to assure the child arrives home safely, whether that means getting dropped off at a stop or heading back to the school for a different bus or parent pickup. “It can be a process some- times,” Sutherland said. “But we always figure it out.” Chuck Moore, vice-pres- ident at Mid Columbia, said that during the first week of school, bus routes often run a little slower. “We don’t mind,” he said. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt.” He said that Mid Colum- bia is off to a good start this year, as the company is see- ing a lot of employee reten- tion from last year. “We love having folks come back with us. Most of our drivers take the same route each year. They know their students and their loca- tions,” Moore said. As parents and students alike gear up for the school year, Moore said there’s one thing that sticks in his mind — safety. He said students should refrain from running after the bus, and to wait until the bus is at a full stop before hopping aboard. He also said that drivers need to remember to stop traffic in either direction when a school bus has its stop sign out. “We don’t want any motoring public to pass when students are getting on that bus,” Moore said.
