Since his election, Jair Bolsonaro has worked to loosen environmental laws and open up vast swaths of the Amazon to industry. Now large stretches of the rainforest are on fire.

Carl De Souza / AFP / Getty Images Fire burns in the Amazon rainforest in the northern Brazilian state of Rondonia on Friday.

Faced with protests at Brazil's embassies around the world and threats of economic pressure from other nations, its far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, on Friday pledged to deploy his country's military to battle fires that have ravaged the Amazon rainforest. In a televised address that was light on specific details, Bolsonaro said soldiers would "survey and combat fire outbreaks" while also working to prevent environmental crimes in the Amazon — a reference to deforestation through illegal logging or land clearing by farmers.

The speech was something of a turnaround for Bolsonaro, who has mostly played down the crisis. “I have a profound love and respect for the Amazon,” he told Brazilians. “Protecting the rainforest is our duty.”

Carl De Souza / AFP / Getty Images

But since his election, Bolsonaro has worked to loosen environmental laws and open up vast swaths of the Amazon to the mining and logging industries. This month, he fired the head of an agency that revealed some 1,330 square miles of forest had been lost since he took office — up 39% over the same period last year. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, there's also been a record number of nearly 73,000 fires this year, up 80% from last year. This week, smoke from fires even turned day into night in São Paulo. Many of the blazes are believed to have been set by farmers and ranchers trying to clear land, but Bolsonaro, who routinely lashes out at "fake news," has suggested, without evidence, that NGOs may be lighting the fires to embarrass him. In addition to being a center of unparalleled biodiversity, the Amazon produces 20% of the world's oxygen, something essential to making Earth a habitable place. It also soaks up vast amounts of carbon dioxide, which is essential to fighting climate change. But with the rainforest on fire, it's currently sending huge amounts of the greenhouse gas back into the atmosphere.

Isabel Infantes / AFP / Getty Images A protester in London on Aug. 23.

Luis Robayo / AFP / Getty Images An activist at the Brazilian consulate in Cali, Colombia, holds a sign reading, "Exterminator of the Future" on Aug. 23.