G-7 leaders agree to $20 million fund to help Brazil fight Amazon fires and repair damage

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Chicago Tribune/AP



G-7 countries have agreed to an immediate $20 million fund to help Amazon countries fight wildfires and launch a long-term global initiative to protect the rainforest. The announcement came from French President Emmanuel Macron, the host of this year's meeting of G-7 leaders, and the Chilean President Sebastián Piñera.

Macron said that the Amazon represents the "lungs" of the planet and that leaders were studying the possibility of similar support in Africa, also suffering from fires in its rainforests. Macron said the U.S. supported the initiative, although he acknowledged that President Donald Trump had skipped Monday’s working session on the environment.

Satellites have recorded more than 41,000 fires in the Amazon region so far this year — with more than half of those coming this month alone. Experts say most of the fires are set by farmers or ranchers clearing existing farmland. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday said her country and others will talk with Brazil about reforestation in the Amazon once fires there have been extinguished.

"Of course (this is) Brazilian territory, but we have a question here of the rainforests that is really a global question," she said. "The lung of our whole Earth is affected, and so we must find common solutions."


Read more: https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-g7-summit-amazon-fires-20190825-n2rxa4hzxnaxlgkf3lamrhrhvy-story.html

[Newest Reality]

1. What?

Is that a tip?

Only $20-million? Really?

You mean these major countries can only cough-up what is, at this scale, kind of like a tip for a meal?

That sounds ridiculous.

[ArizonaLib]

3. It would have been better PR to do nothing

and assert that the problem wasn't big enough to address. That $20 million isn't enough to do anything! Is that all the damage is worth to these morons?

[Newest Reality]

6. You said it!

That amount is pretending to do something. Ah, the world's lungs is not just a cute metaphor here and there are other factors involved like the diverse ecosystem there along with the species and potential cures waiting to be found.

So, a pittance like that does not even make any sense, considering how much is spent on other things overall.

In speculation mode, how much is to be made,(and by whom) from exploiting the increase in farming that will ensue after this? I still think of following the money. Can't help it.

This is another bad sign.

[ArizonaLib]

7. Yes

It's basically the middle finger

[hlthe2b]

5. Less than David Gilmour's $21 million from the sale of his guitars donated to environmental justice

Leonard DiCaprio alone donated $5 million to fighting Amazon fires.

This is baffling in its inadequacy from the G7.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. This assumes Brazil is going to actually fight the fires

because the objective so far seems to be to clear forests in favor of farmland

[IronLionZion]

8. Brazil's president is the root cause

allowing illegal logging and clearing, which includes humans setting the forests on fire.

https://www.vox.com/2019/8/22/20828297/amazon-rainforest-fire-bolsonaro-brazil-populism

[JI7]

4. stop buying beef

[JudyM]

13. This!

[riversedge]

9. Donald Trump's empty chair at the G7 talks on the climate emergency on Monday. Photograph:

Donald Trump’s empty chair at the #G7 talks on the climate emergency on Monday. Photograph:

Link to tweet

?s=20


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/donald-trump-skips-g7-talks-on-climate-crisis-and-amazon-fires

[lambchopp59]

10. Ele Nao Ele Nunca

Eu não entendo como os governos pró-família não se importam com o futuro de nossas crianças. Eles acreditam que o dinheiro pode fazer oxigênio?
"Nós vamos ficar bem com o meio ambiente, podemos deixar um pouco, mas você não pode destruir empresas."
Idiotas.


I don't understand how pro-family governments do not care for our children's futures. do they believe money can make oxygen?

"We'll be fine with the environment, We can leave a little bit, but you can't destroy businesses."
Idiots.

[matt819]

11. $20 million? Really?

I read on the internet (so it must be true) that there were 15,000 asylum-seeking children in detention in the US in December 2018. Let's just assume that that number is still correct.

We've all read that the asylum profiteers are getting $745 per day per child.

Multiply: 15,000 x $745 = $11,1750,000.

So. . . the G7 countries are contributing $20 million to Brazil for fighting the Amazon fires.

Perspective. The US is spending $20 million every two days to house asylum-seeking children.

Is this fucked up, or what?

[angrychair]

12. Its perspective I guess

I am involved with wildland fire suppression out in the PNW. $20 million would not last very long on a fire that size out here.

That said, it may go a little further in South America. Can't say.

Hopefully what that $20 million buys us is actionable data that helps get a handle of some of the bigger fires.
They likely need aircraft and GIS people to generate maps more than anything right now.
Sadly, its unlikely all of South America has enough qualified wildland firefighting resources and aircraft to address it.

According to the below Atlantic article, 851,000 acres has been lost since January of this year (not all from fire, obviously). https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/08/amazon-fires-are-political/596776/

Without resources from the US I would suspect most of these fires will burn until they run out of fuel or weather puts it out.

[Eugene]

14. G7 cash for Amazon fires is 'chump change', say campaigners

G7 cash for Amazon fires is ‘chump change’, say campaigners (The Guardian)

The most concrete outcome of the three-day summit of major industrialised democracies in Biarritz was the $20m that leaders promised to make immediately available to Amazonian nations such as Brazil and Bolivia, primarily for more firefighting planes.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/26/chump-change-g7-cash-to-put-out-amazon-wildfires-not-enough-say-campaigners

[moondust]

15. Bolsonaro rejects the $20 million.

http://www.rferl.org/a/macron-says-g7-near-agreement-on-amazon-fires/30129043.html

[GReedDiamond]

16. Leonardo DiCaprio gave 5 million on his own...

...I'll never forget the first time I met Leo, age 4 or so, late 1978ish - as introduced to me by my friend - his father, George.

I'll also never forget how, way back then, my future kid's mom would shoot the original Leo publicity 8x10s at my art studio in Pasadena.

Those were the days...