August 2019. the Amazon rainforest has been burning for several weeks, and President Jair Bolsonaro's first public reaction to it is a statement that resembles a cheap conspiracy theory: environmental NGOs set the fires to put his government in a bad light (Andreoni et al. 2019). On this, the Brazilian government, represented by its embassies worldwide, became the addressee of protests. Movements such as Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future joined forces with Brazilian activists* abroad to demand a halt to the fires and Bolsonaro's destructive environmental policies (Speare-Cole 2019). For decades, Brazil has been known to be a strong diplomatic advocate for environmental protection and climate change mitigation, and has co-sponsored related initiatives at the international level. Currently, however, the country is governed by climate change deniers* who want to reverse the progress of decades of environmental activism by civil society. Similar developments can be observed in areas such as minority and workers' rights. As a result of these setbacks, Brazil's civil society actors*, who are usually the focus of movement research, face particular challenges under Bolsonaro. This raises important ethical and practical questions for movement researchers, such as their own safety during fieldwork or the safety of contact persons from social movements.