Amazonian States Want $30 Billion in Ecological Reparations from ‘Rich Countries’

A group of regional leaders from the Amazon proposed Monday at the Vatican that rich nations be compelled to indemnify them for environmental damage caused in the so-called “lung of the planet.”

Gathered for the Vatican’s Pan-Amazonian Synod, Brazilian governors as well as regional governments of other Amazon countries held a special summit at the Pontifical Academy for Sciences Monday, in which they insisted that the Amazon is a natural carbon sink that releases oxygen for the whole world and they deserve compensation for it.
Governor Wellington Dias of the Brazilian state of Piauí proposed the creation of the Pan-American Permanent Forum for the Defense of the Amazon, which met with unanimous approval by the other governors and participants.
“Science points to a great risk of climate change on the planet and there is a need to address this issue more swiftly,” Mr. Dias said. “Brazil, as a country that captures carbon dioxide and emits oxygen, has an estimated $30 billion in receivables.”
The payments, Dias said, would go into a financial fund to address the damage caused to the environment by the “rich countries,” which with high levels of consumption are the most responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases on the planet. --> READ MORE