Before Donald Trump’s return, Joe Biden goes to the Amazon for a final symbol for the climate

INTERNATIONAL – This is the first time that a sitting American president has visited the Amazon. Joe Biden made a historic visit to Manaus this Sunday, November 17. With this trip, the outgoing American president marks a strong symbol before the return of Donald Trump to the White House, which raises concerns for the future climate policy of the United States.

The 81-year-old president landed in this Brazilian city, located in the heart of the largest tropical forest on the planet. He was greeted when he got off the plane by local officials, as well as by Carlos Nobre, a Brazilian climatologist awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 as a member of the IPCC.

According to the White House, Joe Biden is preparing to announce a doubling, to one hundred million dollars, of the American contribution to the Amazon Fund, an international fund for the protection of this forest. The US president is then scheduled to fly over the forest and visit a museum before speaking to the media. He will also meet with indigenous people and local officials who are working to protect the Amazon.

This visit, between an Asia-Pacific summit in Lima and a meeting of G20 leaders in Rio de Janeiro, aims to reaffirm the United States’ commitment to the fight against climate change. It comes as Donald Trump’s return to power on January 20 raises concerns about the country’s commitments, the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China. During his first term, Trump withdrew the country from the Paris Agreement. He warned that he wanted to do the same as soon as he returned to power.

The nightmarish expedition of a former American president to the Amazon

If this visit to the Amazon is the first by a serving American president, more than 110 years ago, former American president Theodore Roosevelt almost lost his life in this Amazonian jungle. In 1913, the ex-president, then aged 55, ventured into the forest for an expedition alongside Brazilian explorer Candido Rondon, a defender of indigenous communities and a forest specialist.

Together they had undertaken the crossing of a 760 kilometer river, known as the « River of Doubt » (“the river of doubt”). Roosevelt’s trip did not go as planned: several members of the expedition lost their lives, and the former American president contracted malaria and a leg infection.

Ultimately, the expedition narrowly escaped disaster when the adventurers encountered a group of rubber extractors on April 15, 1914. But Theodore Roosevelt never fully recovered from this expedition. He died five years later, in 1919. The “ River of Doubt » was renamed « Rio Roosevelt » in his tribute.