7 billion euros... Is that a big number?

I recently picked up a book called "The tiger that isn't"

It's about numbers and how to read them. Sometimes, a trillion can be quite a small number, while 0.1 can be enormous.

So when I read that the EU is planning to spend 7 billion euros over 3 years into a global warming fund, what does that actually mean?

Well first of all, lets divide that by 3 to get a yearly amount.

7,000,000,000 / 3 = 2,333,333,333

Two and a third billion euros a year. Is that a big number?

According to wikipedia, the population of the European Union is 499,794,855

so divide the amount being paid per year by the number of people in the european union and you get...

4.6685821392325723987961687467418

So each person in the EU is going to have to fork out 4 euros and 67 cents per year to save the world.

Is that a big number? I suspect it will be far too large for some people to countenance.

The UK, of course, is giving more than any other nation. £500 million a year according to the BBC article. So divide that £500,000,000 by the 2009 estimate of our population (61,113,205) and you get the princely sum of... £8.1815378525803056802535556758969. Per year. Almost 16p per week.

Holy Jesus fucking Christ! How can we eat? What about the Children?

etc.