Getty Image / Rodin Eckenroth/GA/The Hollywood Reporter/iStockphoto/Gino Tuesta
Jeff Bezos is the founder and executive chairman of Amazon. He is the 4th wealthiest man on earth with an estimated personal fortune of $286 billion which is more than the GDP of New Zealand and over double the GDP of Puerto Rico. Somehow, he managed to spot a plea for help on social media despite living on a different plant from the rest of us.
Paul Rosolie is an Amazon rainforest conservationist working in Peru with JungleKeepers.org in order to create a national park. They need to reach 300,000 acres protected and thus far have reached 117,000 of the 300,000 acre quote. Rosolie has been working with locals for 20 years in pursuit of this goal but has time and again run up against a wall when trying to use the word ‘Amazon.’
That is, of course, because Jeff Bezos owns the trademark/rights to ‘Amazon’ at least in the eyes of Google News. So what did Paul Rosolie do? He put out a personal plea to Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez asking for help and Jeff has now responded.
Jeff Bezos Responds To Amazon Rainforest Activist’s Plea For Help
On Instagram, Paul Rosolie put out a video that starts with “this is for Mr. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. Guys, we are in one of the most beautiful places in the Amazon rainforest. This is a tiny tributary in the headwaters of the Amazon.”
He continued, saying “I have been working with the local indigenous people for the last 20 years and they have been fighting to protect this place against the loggers, and the gold miners, and the narco traffickers. And as we as an organization continue fighting… We have gotten to 117,000 acres protected. We’ve been told by the Peruvian government that if we can get to 300,000 acres protected we can turn this into a national park and save all the millions of wildlife that live in this place, all the uncontacted indigenous people, all the undiscovered medicines that are still contained in the saps of these trees.”
And here is where his plea to Jeff Bezos really begins in earnest. Rosolie says “the only problem is, as we’re trying to promote our organization we’re literally not allowed to use the word ‘Amazon.’ Not ‘Amazon Rainforest,’ not ‘Peruvian Amazon,’ nothing. And I know that you guys care about the environment… Lauren, I’ve seen you posting about creating new national parks in the Peruvian Amazon. Let’s make it one more. Let’s create a miracle in the Amazon. We just need a little bit of help you guys to try and get the word out there to protect one of the wildest places on earth. We’d really appreciate it.”
It was a well worded, passionate plea for help. He isn’t asking the 4th wealthiest person on earth to swoop in and save the Amazon Rainforest himself. All he is asking for is to be able to use the word ‘Amazon’ in Google Ads in order to promote their organization, JungleKeepers.org, and expand their fundraising effort.
Well, Jeff Bezos saw the message and responded and gave him full permission and then some. Bezos responded from his personal Instagram account and the official Amazon Instagram account responded as well:
Jeff’s message was simple: “This makes no sense. Having the team reach out to help.” Very quickly thereafter, the official Amazon account said someone from their team would sort this out immediately.
At the end of the day though, this is really more of an issue with Google Ads not recognizing the Amazon Rainforest as a distinct entity from Jeff Bezos’ Amazon corporation. So hopefully that will get sorted out in all of this as well.
As things stand, the JungleKeepers.org website states that they have raised $11,768,418 out of their total goal of $34,000,000. That will get them to the amount required to buy up the additional land and create a new protected national park in the Peruvian Amazon.
On any given day, Jeff Bezos makes between $78 million to $190 million, depending on the markets. His net worth is up $33.1 billion year over year. I’m not saying he should immediately step in with the $22.3 million donation and make this happen immediately. I’m merely saying that if he wanted to, he could, and it it would require less money than he makes while he’s asleep every night.
Here is the original video from Paul Rosolie:
All’s well that ends well. It is wild that it took this message reaching the 4th wealthiest man on earth for this to happen though.