French cartoonist Alexis Delahaye has suggested the money should be put towards conserving the planet.
ADVERTISEMENTA cartoon has gone viral after using satire to call into question the millions of euros being pledged towards rebuilding Notre Dame.
French cartoonist Alexis Delahaye has suggested the money should be put towards conserving the planet.
Delahaye, who goes by the pseudonym Silex, posted an illustration of the French cathedral as an iceberg floating in the middle of the ocean.
In it, a polar bear is shown turning to the penguin and says: "I swear to you! With this, the whole world will feel concerned."
Notre Dame was hit by a blaze this week, which saw its spire and roof collapse.
In the aftermath, donors pledged more than €700 million to rebuild it. French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, head of Louis Vuitton Bernard Arnault and the Bettencourt-Meyer family were among the first ones to contribute.
The flood of donations sparked controversy on social media.
"The ultra-wealthy people stole our sadness, just stole the moment.. a moment of communion, just by popping their credit cards and their hundreds of millions of dollar," Silex told Euronews' The Cube.
The illustration has been shared over 40,000 times on Facebook as of April 18.
Other voices have joined in since donations started flooding in on Tuesday. British actor David Schneider also expressed his concern: "If we could all actually watch in horror at our planet being destroyed in the same way we watched in horror as Notre Dame was being destroyed, we might do more to stop it. #ExtinctionRebelion."
On Tuesday, teenage activist Greta Thunberg urged MEPs to give climate change as much importance as they have given to Notre Dame.
“Notre Dame will be rebuilt. I hope its foundations are strong, I hope ours are even stronger.”