MIT-Trained Physicist Fired in Brazil in Spat Over Deforestation

(Bloomberg) -- The head of Brazil's Institute for Space Research has been fired after clashing with the government over data showing a sharp increase in deforestation in the Amazon.

Ricardo Galvao announced his departure from INPE in a press conference with reporters after a closed meeting with the country's Science and Technology minister, Marcos Pontes. The ministry confirmed the decision to fire him when contacted by Bloomberg, adding that it will probably disclose more information, including a replacement, later this Friday.

The dismissal comes one day after President Jair Bolsonaro criticized INPE data showing an 88% percent increase in deforestation between June 2018 and June 2019. In a press conference accompanied by his foreign and environment ministers, the president said the numbers were not true and that it made the country - and himself - look bad abroad. He also threatened to fire anyone found to have manipulated the data to make his administration look bad.

A telecommunications engineer with a masters degree in electrical engineering and a PhD in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Galvao was nominated as head of the space research institute in September 2016. Bolsonaro first described INPE's numbers as “lies” in a July 19 meeting with foreign journalists and suggested its director must be working for an NGO. In the press conference on Thursday, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said the government is going to employ a new monitoring system for deforestation.

It wasn't the first time Bolsonaro cast doubt on displeasing official data. As unemployment rose in the first quarter, Bolsonaro repeated his prior criticism of the statistics institute's methodology for the index. IBGE's calculation uses as its base the number of potential workers looking for employment, even if more people join the job hunt. The practice follows International Labour Organization recommendations and is how the U.S. measures unemployment. With unemployment now falling, Bolsonaro cited the index twice this week as evidence of his administration's achievements.

--With assistance from David Biller.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Sergio Lima in Brasilia Newsroom at mlima11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Bruce Douglas

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