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Hey! Billionaires of the world - there are now 1400 of you [1]. How much would it cost to, say, A) buy the entire amazon rainforest, so that it doesn't get cho

Hey! Billionaires of the world - there are now 1400 of you [1]. How much would it cost to, say, A) buy the entire amazon rainforest, so that it doesn't get chopped down anymore? (Yes, it's not just that easy, needs monitoring and patrol, etc.) B) Solve nuclear fusion, C) build massive arrays of solar panels (or fusion reactors) in order to desalinate water and eventually reforest the deserts of africa? Once I'm a billionaire myself I hope to help with at least one of those three things. Until then, we must ask them nicely to act, rather than just watch their capital asexually reproduce. [1] https://boingboing.net/2017/10/27/new-gilded-age.html https://boingboing.net/2017/10/27/new-gilded-age.html

JPLeRouzic 9y ago
I upvoted you because I agree with the "spirit" of what you wrote, but something is nagging me: Once free energy (in the form of massive solar panel fields or nuclear fusion) is available, would not it be actually worse? - True we would (in theory) no more need coal/oil, but that would be useless for most transport means as we would have pollution made by producing batteries as well as with old abandonned leaking electric cars? - For the Amazon rainforest, I learnt that it is something that came and went several times during the hundred of millenia since it exists. Why do you expect it to have an impact on CO2 rate or the climate? After all if the problem is the Co2 we could attack it directly by transforming it in food for example. - There is at least an ongoing project in Sahel to create a long wall of trees, but the main problem is that people burn bush/trees for cooking and they raise goats. Goats tear off grass, on contrary to other cattle. Those two reasons explain well the desert progression, in Sahara at least. Another problem is that the West of Sahara is infested with personal mines. What I would propose (actually I proposed it in the Global challenges shape prize [0]) is for UNHCR to create artificial towns in those areas. It not only would provide work and wealth to people there but it would change their way of living. This is not a pipe dream, China is already implementing a similar policy. [0] https://globalchallenges.org/en/our-work/the-new-shape-prize https://globalchallenges.org/en/our-work/the-new-shape-prize
- nakedrobot2 9y ago
  Oh! That's an interesting idea. I hadn't considered providing additional population / infrastructure, as an economic incentive to "regreen" an area. You would still need some massive efforts around planting / watering the new vegetation though. So these "new towns" would be in addition to newly forested+grass areas?
  - JPLeRouzic 9y ago
    Yes, not so long ago there were marshes where is now the Chad lake. The megalake Chad was reached by Romans who called it "lake of ippopotamus". It is a node of watercraft transport between the West Africa, the Golf of Guinea and the Congo to the South. Actually all the places between CAR and Mali could be much greener. There is even a (quite old) project to make this area a much wetter place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Chad_replenishment_project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Chad_replenishment_projec...
p0nce 9y ago
Rich people: since you have as much money, you should direct it towards solving that problem with all the available channels, including carbon recapture.
cryoshon 9y ago
how much? i think that with confidence we can say "less than the amount that they have." fourteen individuals control more than half the world's wealth. you mentioned 1400. think about what we could accomplish if we took what was theirs and put it to the improvement of humanity's position

JPLeRouzic 9y ago

I upvoted you because I agree with the "spirit" of what you wrote, but something is nagging me: Once free energy (in the form of massive solar panel fields or nuclear fusion) is available, would not it be actually worse? - True we would (in theory) no more need coal/oil, but that would be useless for most transport means as we would have pollution made by producing batteries as well as with old abandonned leaking electric cars? - For the Amazon rainforest, I learnt that it is something that came and went several times during the hundred of millenia since it exists. Why do you expect it to have an impact on CO2 rate or the climate? After all if the problem is the Co2 we could attack it directly by transforming it in food for example. - There is at least an ongoing project in Sahel to create a long wall of trees, but the main problem is that people burn bush/trees for cooking and they raise goats. Goats tear off grass, on contrary to other cattle. Those two reasons explain well the desert progression, in Sahara at least. Another problem is that the West of Sahara is infested with personal mines. What I would propose (actually I proposed it in the Global challenges shape prize [0]) is for UNHCR to create artificial towns in those areas. It not only would provide work and wealth to people there but it would change their way of living. This is not a pipe dream, China is already implementing a similar policy. [0] https://globalchallenges.org/en/our-work/the-new-shape-prize https://globalchallenges.org/en/our-work/the-new-shape-prize

nakedrobot2 9y ago
Oh! That's an interesting idea. I hadn't considered providing additional population / infrastructure, as an economic incentive to "regreen" an area. You would still need some massive efforts around planting / watering the new vegetation though. So these "new towns" would be in addition to newly forested+grass areas?
- JPLeRouzic 9y ago
  Yes, not so long ago there were marshes where is now the Chad lake. The megalake Chad was reached by Romans who called it "lake of ippopotamus". It is a node of watercraft transport between the West Africa, the Golf of Guinea and the Congo to the South. Actually all the places between CAR and Mali could be much greener. There is even a (quite old) project to make this area a much wetter place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Chad_replenishment_project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Chad_replenishment_projec...

p0nce 9y ago

Rich people: since you have as much money, you should direct it towards solving that problem with all the available channels, including carbon recapture.

cryoshon 9y ago

how much? i think that with confidence we can say "less than the amount that they have." fourteen individuals control more than half the world's wealth. you mentioned 1400. think about what we could accomplish if we took what was theirs and put it to the improvement of humanity's position