5 Dumb Things That Cost More Than the $20M World Leaders Scraped Together for the Amazon
The Amazon rainforest is still on fire, and while world leaders called for attention to the crisis ahead of this weekend’s G7 summit, it seems the most they could actually agree to do was throw a few bucks at the problem and shrug.
As the Associated Press reported, the G7 countries agreed to launched a $20 million fund “to help Amazon countries fight wildfires and launch a long-term global initiative to protect the rainforest.”
In response, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro accused the leaders of treating the Amazon region “like a colony.” He’s previously blamed the fires on nongovernmental organizations and warmer weather for helping them spread. He’s provided no evidence for his former claim, while experts say the latter is also false.
Alas, it’s truly alarming that world leaders, in response to an area of the world that produces 20 percent of Earth’s oxygen being on fire, can only justify putting up $20 million to help Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and other countries that share the Amazon rainforest. Comparatively speaking, $20 million is nothing. (According to the AP, the G7 summit cost just over $20 million to put on, and that was called “thrifty.”) For example, here are five other things that put that number to shame: