I'm from Brazil, a developing country. Sometimes I express here on HN the fact I'd burn down the entire Amazon jungle if doing that would give us enough industrial strength to rival the USA and China. That jungle just doesn't matter to me. If you handed me a button that burned down the entire Amazon and told me Brazil would be the most prosperous nation on earth if I pushed it, I wouldn't even think twice.
Usually I just get downvoted until my post is white but someone once replied with an interesting proposition: paying me not to do it. I just laughed it off because it seemed completely insane to me. Why would they pay off a developing country not to develop itself?
And now I come across this thread and it seems these people are doing exactly that. Why our president isn't jumping at that chance is beyond me.
You shouldn't be downvoted, IMHO. In fact, you pose a really interesting question, and also challenge, to the rest of the world.
Your country has a resource, it could monetize it, the rest of the world should incentivize you to NOT cut down the forest, in order to have a better Earth.
And I'm sure somewhere else, there's a person in their 60s in the US who'd push a button that made all life on earth that uses sexual reproduction infertile and unable to continue past the current generation if it meant they got to live a rich western life for their remaining years.
I don't think the notion that humans are self-interested is particular surprising. It's more notable when we are not.
Usually I just get downvoted until my post is white but someone once replied with an interesting proposition: paying me not to do it. I just laughed it off because it seemed completely insane to me. Why would they pay off a developing country not to develop itself?
And now I come across this thread and it seems these people are doing exactly that. Why our president isn't jumping at that chance is beyond me.