To think that the world should pay Brazil to maintain the Amazon

[maddening]

Just that really, I see what Brazil is doing to the Amazon and it is awful, however despite their questionable leader (both in terms of corruption and poor leadership Imo) I understand their point, we have all deforrested, albeit a long time ago when we were less enlightened, to create land for agriculture, homes and industries. So if the world needs the Amazon to act as the lungs of the planet should we not collectively recompense Brazil as if it were a crop?

Yes. Seems reasonable

Yep, the world needs it as a resource, so we should be helping maintain it

Excellent idea.

Yes

Seems fair enough

But how do you think that would work? The corrupt as fuck brazilian governement will sure as hell not use the money to help the amazon so all the world would be doing is funding crime.

No, we should reforest our own upland areas and stop rich landowners denuding the hills and moors for grouse shooting.

Yes I agree something must be done and it should be a worldwide collective effort. But how would it be managed so that the funding goes exactly where it is needed, to properly 'save' the Amazon? My concern is the money getting into the wrong hands and not being used for it's intended purpose. Not that this means we should all do nothing of course.

Freakonomics podcast covered this recently. In theory it’s a great idea as it wouldn’t be that expensive to replace the income of people who clear parts of the Amazon for cattle ranching (as it isn’t particularly good land for cattle ranching anyway). The difficulty is the politics and getting international agreement as well as ensuring that the money is actually used for protection. Apparently Brazil has done more than they are usually given credit for to try to protect it though not sure if that holds true under the current president.

It's a nice idea but as others said, corruption.

I also agreee we need to put our own house in order before we start lecturing others.

I agree with you, but what i imagine would happen is nations organise to effectively buy or police or monitor another nation's land for the good of the whole. It wouldn't work because it would then stand to reason that blood diamonds, drilling for oil, clean water mandates, governing housing so that it is sustainable and not on flood planes, would all be similar ethical decisions and people in power do not agree to these kinds of decisions.

Seems pointless while Bolsanaro is in power.

In theory, brilliant.

No. Its a great idea in theory but the government wouldnt spend it on it, they'd spend it on themselves rendering it a huge waste of cash.

I'm not happy about my taxes going towards brazilian corruption thanks.

Thanks for some interesting insights.

I do agree that the corruption is a disgrace but wonder whether it is the world's place to dictate how the Brazilians spent. Income paid to maintain the Amazon. I do agree.that it would be extremely hard to ensure that they did stop deforestation etc

I also agree.that we should look at ourselves first too.

Or you could just go vegan so they stop chopping it down for grazing and animal feed.

We've got plenty of our own ecosystem that has been/is being degraded too, you know. Britain used to be covered in trees.

Am veggie ready 😀

Might as well spend the money planting trees - anywhere. A trillion trees planted would make a massive difference to climate change.

Europe dominated the world by deforesting and industrialising. It’s a bit rich to wag ours fingers at the developing countries now.

There ought to be a collective committee who can acquire areas around the globe which are in serious need of rescuing. The Amazon. The Great barrier reef etc.

If a country isn't able to maintain it themselves then the area is taken by the committee (funded by all countries but with the country of origin covering the first 20%).

The committee then uses the collective knowledge of scientists/botanists etc to restore it back to health or maintain it at its peak in the interest of global safety.

LBut how do you think that would work? The corrupt as fuck brazilian governement will sure as hell not use the money to help the amazon so all the world would be doing is funding crime.

I agree it’s a great idea but then how do you ensure the very likely above scenario doesn’t happen.

But what is it specifically about the Amazon that you want to save? The trees? The biodiversity? We’ve lost more of both of those on our own continent, it just happened before anyone was aware of the consequences. We could reforest here first and set an example.