Brazil is not alone in prioritizing industrialization over the environment. Coal in UK, oil in US, dams in China — just a few of many examples. That shame or sense of responsibility should be shared by many countries.

Context is everything. Not every country is at the same point on the industrial timeline. The UK, US, Europe are post-industrial, and have the luxury to focus on greener energy options. Other countries not so much (yet).

The only reason why those places mentioned can be said to be "post" industrial is because they moved most of the industry to other countries. You can't do that forever, you're bound to run out of countries at some point. Not all the countries can be "post-industrial", the metal has to be smelted somewhere

> the metal has to be smelted somewhere

Well, Mars. Obviously. /s

Since we have been living in a global economy for quite some time now, shouldn't we actually _pay_ Brazil to preserve its forest, a resource that the whole humanity/planet benefits from?

We're trying, but it's harder than it sounds: https://features.propublica.org/brazil-carbon-offsets/inconv...

Countries like mine benefiting from deforestation are just as culpable, we can't blame it all on Brazil.

Infrastructure and urbanisation are pretty much synonymous with killing off plant life and green zones, sadly. I don't think it's a necessary trade-off but it's the easiest route to take and, historically, humanity is a big proponent of the easiest routes.