This story went ablaze in August; the month that’s commonly known as ‘silly season’ among journalists because a scarcity of stories means otherwise trivial news makes it into the headlines. For Brazilian supporters of Bolsonaro, that’s the only way to explain how high profile the story became – they say fires in the Amazon are routine at this time of year and the numbers for 2019 aren’t extraordinary. But environmentalists look to Bolsonaro’s political record and see the beginnings of a disturbing trend that could result in the forest being wiped out.