2% of Elon Musk’s fortune could solve world hunger

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (CNN Business) – The director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said that a small group of ultra-rich individuals could help solve world hunger with just a fraction of their net worth.

David Beasley said in an interview with the show that billionaires should “go up now, just once.” Connect the world CNN with Becky Anderson that aired on Tuesday, specifically quoting the two richest men in the world, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

“Six billion dollars to help 42 million people will literally die if we don’t help them. It’s not complicated,” he added.

Tesla CEO Musk has a net worth of nearly $289 billion, according to Bloomberg, which means Beasley is asking to donate just 2% of his fortune. American billionaires’ net worth has nearly doubled since the pandemic began, reaching $5.04 trillion in October, according to the groups. Institute for Policy Studies y Americans for Tax Justice.

Beasley said a “perfect storm” of various crises, such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, meant many countries were “knocking on the door of famine.”

Half of Afghanistan’s population – 22.8 million people – is facing an acute hunger crisis, according to a World Food Program report Posted on Monday. The report concluded that rampant unemployment and a liquidity crisis mean the country is teetering on the brink of a humanitarian crisis and that 3.2 million children under the age of five are at risk.

a A series of new reports The Biden administration issued a stern warning last week: Effects climate change It will be far-reaching and will pose problems for all governments.

Among the reports, the administration details how climate change is driving migration, the first time the US government has formally acknowledged the link between climate change and migration. The World Food Program has warned of this wave of moves in the past, particularly in the “dry corridor” region of Central America.

“For example, let’s take the United States, the Central American region, the Dry Corridor, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, in that exact region,” Beasley said on Tuesday.

“We’re feeding a lot of people out there and the climate is changing because of hurricanes and flash floods – it’s just devastating.”

In Ethiopia, the World Food Program estimates that 5.2 million people They are in dire need of food aid in the Tigray region, where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been leading a major offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front since last year. Since then, thousands of civilians have died, while more than two million people have been displaced.

Humanitarian organizations such as the World Food Program have struggled to get supplies to those in need in the area, exacerbating the crisis.

“I don’t know where they get their food from,” Beasley said in a lengthy interview. “We’re out of fuel, we’re out of cash, in terms of paying our employees, we’re out of money and we can’t get our trucks in.”