Brazil’s Space Research Director Resigns Following Government’s Criticism of Deforestation Data

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After clashes with president Jair Bolsonaro, the director of the National Institute of Space Research (INPE), Ricardo Galvão, announced this Friday, August 2nd, that he would resign from his position.

In an interview on Friday, the current director of the institution said that the debate with the president created an intolerable constraint. “My speech with respect to the president caused discomfort. I was very concerned that it would backfire,” explained the director of Inpe after meeting with Marcos Pontes, the Minister of Science, Technology, and Communications.

On July 20th, according to the National Newspaper, Galvão said that “he [Bolsonaro] behaves as if he were in a bar. In other words, he made undue accusations against top-level people in Brazilian science, not just me, but many other people. This is a joke by a fourteen-year-old boy that is unfit for a president to make,” said the director of INPE.

Recently, Bolsonaro accused INPE of disclosing wrong data on deforestation. According to a report published in July, there would have been an 88 percent increase in deforestation in the Amazon, data that was promptly challenged by the government. The president even said that Galvão, who is a professor of physics at the University of São Paulo (USP), would be acting “at the service of an NGO.”

On Thursday, August 1st, the president indicated that Galvão would be dismissed. In a press interview, Bolsonaro said that he “might make a more drastic decision” concerning the director because of the disclosure of allegedly inaccurate data on deforestation in Brazil.

“If someone breaks trust, they will be immediately dismissed, there is no excuse for any government subordinate to disclose data of such importance to our Brazil,” said Bolsonaro.