Oh fuck off. Anybody at any time can donate money to the poor and environmental charities. Notre Dame is historical and should be preserve. Anybody who has a problem with it is going to be a hypocrite.

Cultural artifacts such as that are priceless and inspire more goodwill and wealth than a billion dollar donation to any or all of those things could. Really though, there is no reason why there can't be both. If someone is cold give them your jacket, don't burn a rare book. Charity isn't a zero sum game.

Agreed. I don't care about Notre Dame. People literally care more about a building than about people! All that money going to waste when it could be used to help people. The rich have enough money to help other people but they don't give a shit. We already knew that but this reinforces it. It's not that the money to help people doesn't exist. It's how it's managed. Fuck the rich and fuck Notre Dame. Why doesn't God just fix the cathedral himself for free? Oh, that's right. Because he doesn't exist.

It's their money, so it's their choice to do what they like with it.

nooo, you got to rebuild god's house! not like he's everywhere supposedly:)

There's no need to choose, because there is more than enough money in the world to fund ALL of those things if rich people gave a shit :-D

Most universities have pretty huge endowments, Harvard grosses more than most fortune 500's. Much of that is already spent on research that contributes to reducing poverty and pollution, so I find the comment redundant.

Throwing money at geopolitical problems doesn't help anyone long term. Restoration of cultural artifacts tough is worthwhile to collect money towards.