People are naming things that cost more than the G7's $20m aid package for the Amazon

People are not impressed with the G7’s offer to give $20m in aid to help Brazil deal with the Amazon fires.

The Amazon Rainforest, which has been on fire for weeks, covers about 1 per cent of the world’s surface and holds 10 per cent of all wildlife species known to man.

It also plays an important part in stabilising the climate through its role in the global and regional carbon and water cycles.

At the G7 summit over the weekend, leaders from seven of the world’s biggest economies (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US) offered $20m in aid to Amazonian nations, such as Brazil and Bolizia, to cope with the fires.

That figure failed to impress environmental campaigners, such as Greenpeace’s Richard George – who said:

The offer of $20m is chump change, especially as the crisis in the Amazon is directly linked to overconsumption of meat and dairy in the UK and other G7 countries.

And in a world where football transfer fees and film budgets regularly exceed $100m, $20m seems a bit low for the Amazon Rainforest.

Here are just some of the things that cost more than the G7 aid package:

This one is obviously a joke but it’s actually not as much of an exaggeration as you’d think - apparently The Boss Baby had a budget of $125m.

And here are some other examples to put that figure in perspective:

• The UK government is preparing to spend up to £100m on a “public information campaign” about a no-deal Brexit which might not even happen.
• Liverpool FC spent £35m on striker Andy Carroll – who scored just 6 Premier League goals in his three years at the club.
• The Garden Bridge project in London, which was abandoned in 2017, cost £53m (£43m of which came from public funds).

Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio has pledged $5m of his own money to help the Amazon rainforest…

To be fair, the G7 has also offered to launch a longer-term initiative to protect the rainforest alongside the immediate aid package – but still, you have to wonder if $20m is really the best that the world’s richest countries can do.

More: Seven ways you can help save the Amazon rainforest