Elon Musk has offered to sell “now” some of his Tesla shares if the UN proves that $6 billion will solve world hunger.
His comments came after the director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), David Beasley, challenged the very rich – and in particular the two richest men in the world, Jeff Bezos and Musk – to come together to help solve the problem of food shortages. The provocation was made in an interview by the authority on CNN last week.
“$6 billion to help 42 million people who will literally die if we don’t reach them. It’s not complicated,” Beasley said on CNN International’s “Connect the World” with Becky Anderson. That sum would amount to about 2% of Musk’s net wealth.
In a post on Sunday (31), Tesla’s chief executive said, “If WFP can describe in this Twitter thread exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and I will.” .
“But it must be open source accounting so that the public can see precisely how the money is spent,” he added.
Beasley responded to Musk’s Twitter post, calling on Tesla to work with the UN to verify the numbers. “Your team can analyze and work with us to have complete confidence in this,” Beasley said.
“$6 billion will not solve world hunger, but it will prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and save 42 million people from the brink of hunger. An unprecedented crisis and a perfect storm due to Covid/conflicts/weather crises,” he added.
Addressing billionaires directly in the CNN interview, he said: “What if it was your daughter starving? What if it was your family starving? Wake up, cheer up and help”.
As of Monday, Musk had a net worth of $311 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, making him the richest man in the world.
The net worth of US billionaires has nearly doubled since the start of the pandemic, reaching $5.04 trillion in October, according to the progressive groups the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness.
Last week, Tesla became the sixth company in US history to be worth $1 trillion and the second fastest to reach that milestone, after Facebook.
“Perfect Storm”
A “perfect storm” with the combination of several crises, including those of Covid-19 and climate change, means that many nations are “knocking on the door of hunger,” Beasley said during the CNN program.
A series of new reports from the Biden administration issued an important warning last week: the effects of climate change will be far-reaching and will pose problems for all governments.
Half of Afghanistan’s population – 22.8 million people – is facing an acute hunger crisis, according to a WFP report released this Monday. Soaring unemployment and a liquidity crisis mean the country is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis and 3.2 million children under the age of five are at risk, the report concluded.
Among the reports, the government details how climate change is driving migration, the first time the US government has officially recognized the link between climate change and migration.
“For example, consider the United States and the Central American region, the Corredor Seco, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua – just in this area,” Beasley said on Tuesday (26). “The climate is changing (in these regions) with hurricanes and floods; it is simply devastating”, says the UN official, who emphasizes the possibility that weather events could destroy local production and hinder access to food in the region.
In Ethiopia, the WFP estimates that 5.2 million people are in urgent need of food assistance in the Tigray region, where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been leading a major offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) since the year. past. Since then, thousands of civilians have been killed, while more than 2 million have been displaced.
Humanitarian organizations such as the WFP point out that the offensive has exacerbated hunger in Tigray. The groups have been working to bring supplies to those in need in the region.
“I don’t know where they’re getting the food from,” Beasley said. “We’re short of money to pay our people and get fuel, which prevents us from moving our trucks,” Beasley said.
(The text is a translation. Read the originals on the UN director’s statement and Musk’s response.)
Reference: CNN Brasil
I am Sophia william, author of World Stock Market. I have a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and I have worked as a reporter for several news websites. I have a passion for writing and informing people about the latest news and events happening in the world. I strive to be accurate and unbiased in my reporting, and I hope to provide readers with valuable information that they can use to make informed decisions.
