The United Nations Environment Programme named him a Global 500 Roll of Honour Award winner in 1987. Paul McCartney dedicated a 1989 song, “How Many People,” to him. A Hollywood film based on his life premiered in 1994. And the arm of Brazil’s Environment Ministry that designates and manages federally protected lands is called The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation. Yet the name of Chico Mendes, the late rubber-tappers’ union leader who became Brazil’s most famous environmentalist by spotlighting the need for rainforest protection, does not appear to mean much to Ricardo Salles, Brazil’s recently appointed environment minister. Appearing on a popular televised interview program on Feb. 11, Salles dismissed Mendes as “irrelevant,” unleashing a torrent of public criticism led by green advocates and others critical of the two-month-old administration of Brazil’s new rightwing president, Jair Bolsonaro. Mendes was murdered in 1988 by the son of... [Log in to read more]