If you personally had a net worth of $3.6 billion, would you give all of it to Ecuador to "finance" a stunningly stupid scheme that will allegedly prevent bad weather in 2050?

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: A Novel Plan or Green Extortion?

The FT today reports of a "novel plan" by Ecuador which has proposed to forgo drilling 846 million barrels of oil under the rainforests of Yasuni national park. A decision not to drill requires payments of $3.6 billion over 10 years, which represents the Ecuador government's estimate of half revenue that it would raise if drilling were to occur.  Ecuador has not offered to forgo drilling for the other 2.7 billion barrels of oil it has in reserves. The plan does not fit under any existing international scheme, such as REDD, and has seen limited international support so far.