Thirty years ago, I wrote a poem in honour of the Brazilian labour leader and environmentalist Chico Mendes, who was assassinated because of his campaign to preserve the Amazonian rainforest. He had got in the way of the powers that be and the vested interests.
The battle he bravely fought is being lost as we see only too clearly in the headlines of the world. The great Amazon forest — so vital to the health of the whole world — is burning worse than it ever has.
