Putting our money where our mouth is on the environment.

Oil drilling is about to commence in a particularly important area of the Amazon rainforest. It happens, right? In this case, though, it didn't have to as Rafael Correa, Ecuador's president, appealed to the UN and international community generally, to set up an appeal for half of the projected USD7.2bn value of the reserve's oil. If that target was achieved, he said, drilling would be banned.

USD$300m was pledged. Pathetic. Just for contrast, USD1.3tn has been spent on bailing out the British banking system after the financial meltdown. That's roughly 350 times the amount Correa wanted investing in UN sanctioned projects in Ecuador. Global capitalism is obviously way more important than our life support system, the planet.

We should be prepared to sacrifice some GDP to help bring up the standard of living of peoples in environmentally sensitive areas. They look at us and think "I'd like some of those things" - then along comes the US or China with the offer of loads of hard cash for the oil and the pressure is on. If the developed nations just in effect rented the Amazon the pressure would be far less.

Sad, really sad.