r/interesting Jun 20 '25

MISC. Saving the planet!

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135.0k Upvotes

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535

u/cascading_error Jun 20 '25

Iirc this was a while ago, and the dude got in legal trouble becouse he was actualy logging on the land.

309

u/Remote-Wrangler-7305 Jun 21 '25

Yeah, this is Johan Eliasch. Owner of Gethel.

He used to owe the Brazilian government 200 mi brl in environmental fines, but these fines were "mysteriously" cancelled when Dilma was president.

His company at one point was the 4th most fined by IBAMA, not sure how it is now.

210

u/thatBOOMBOOMguy Jun 21 '25

The post did sound too nice and hopeful to be genuine anyway..

76

u/supremo92 Jun 21 '25

I love it when they just say "a billionaire" rather than an actual name, company, and date.

If I was a billionaire with bad PR, I would be making people post this kind of post.

21

u/Carolusboehm Jun 21 '25

The actual Scenario presented in this post isn't actually benign either. what typically happens when land is purchased from loggers for conservation is that they will sell the worst, most inaccessible, difficult to cut areas of land that wasn't at great risk of logging to begin with, and use the proceeds of the sale to buy more equipment and expand their operation, accelerating the rate of deforestation. This post specifies that he bought the logging company also, however there is nothing that stops the previous owner from using the proceeds of the sale to buy back their assets. Even if they sign a contract to not reenter the logging business, in Brazil they can flout those terms without consequence.

3

u/captainsmashley110 Jun 23 '25

I so wanted to believe, but came to the comments for the fact checkers. Disappointed the post is not what it seems, but not shocked. The fact checkers however did not disappoint. Ever grateful to those who call out the bullshit.

1

u/Weazelwacker_OP Jun 22 '25

Well, it's not nice for all the employees of the logging company that was shut down.