From the excellent Environmental Graffiti comes news that the King of Saudi Arabia will be donating $300 million dollars to environmental research.
The King made the announcement during a speech at a gathering of OPEC heads in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, saying: “We will give $300 million for research into helping the environment.”
OPEC had earlier announced that it supported the fight against global warming, and would support initiatives to help fight climate change.
The Saudi King’s gesture may seem like a positive step forward by some, but it seems almost laughable in light of other recent news involving the Saudi royal family. Airbus recently announced that Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was the first person to purchase their USD 319 M Airbus SAS A380 superjet, for use as a private plane.
Add in another couple of hundred million to retrofit the plane and you have about twice as much money being spent on the plane than the environmental research. Those Saudis sure know how to roll!
