Amazon CEO faces flack for donating pittance towards Australia bushfires relief

Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who is worth $117 billion burnt his fingers when he pledged just $690,000 to a wildlife recovery organisation towards Australian bushfires relief efforts -- leading to social media users slamming him for donating a pittance which he makes in less than 5 minutes.

One woman even claimed she raised nearly twice what Amazon pledged by selling her nude photos online.

"Our hearts go out to all Australians as they cope with these devastating bushfires. Amazon is donating 1 million AU dollars in needed provisions and services. Find more about it and learn how customers can help as well," Bezos posted on Instagram.

This was enough to put the social media platforms on fire.

"So you're donating 690k US dollars to an entire country burning. Amazon makes about that much in 10 minutes," posted another.

To put things in perspective, Amazon today has a market cap of $936 billion.

US media personality Kylie Jenner is even giving $1 million while Elton John has donated $1 million towards the Australian wildfires.

"This may sound horrible, but $690,000 is a pittance for #JeffBezos. That's like me putting $2 into the Salvation Army bucket," tweeted one user.

"Agree anything helps. However, when your [sic] the world's richest person and you only donate .000059 per cent of your worth, it's [what] makes you cheap. It's more of PR move on his part. Celebrities with far less money donated more," wrote one user under the Bezos post.

Instagram model Kaylen Ward told Buzzfeed that she's raised more $1 million by offering to send a nude photo to anyone who showed her proof that they donated to one of a list of organisations working in Australia.

Since September, fires have ravaged more than 80,000 square km -- an area larger than Ireland -- and left 28 people dead, besides an estimated one billion wild animals in Australia.

The fires have released some 349 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the past four months, according to the non-profit Journalists for the Planet, compared to 532 million tonnes of the country's total annual emissions in all of 2018.