Ross Burkhart, a professor in the School of Public Service, was quoted in an article published recently by PolitiFact, a news service that assesses the accuracy of statements by public officials.
This particular article, “Is Trump’s trade war to blame for the Amazon wildfires? That’s a stretch,” discusses various causes for the numerous wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in the context of claims made by the John Delaney presidential campaign that the trade war with China initiated by President Trump is directly to blame for the wildfires.
Burkhart remarked that the decisions to ignite the wildfires are internal to Brazil, though there is incentive to clear land for agriculture to sell produce to China in the wake of the trade war, so there is an indirect link from the trade war to the wildfires.