As the global warming movement gathers momentum a number of celebrities and politicians have placed themselves at the forefront of the media, economic and political campaigns that champion its cause. This is part 1 of a series of articles that will delve into a few of the worlds most well known personalities, who they are, what they’re doing and how they got involved.
This week we take a look at the Prince of Wales and heir to the throne of the United Kingdom, Charles has personally taken a major role in developing awareness and energy efficiency projects in the wake of Climate Change and has spent over 20 years doing so.
Less Than 100 Months Left
He has appeared numerous times in media publications vociferously championing the cause of the global warming. In 2009, the Prince said there “were less than 100 months” left to save the planet from irreversible damage due to climate change.
The Princes Initiatives
Amongst his projects and charitable organisations, he has an initiative called Start – to provide the public with advice on how to lead more environmentally sustainable lives; The Princes Rainforests Project set up in 2007 with the goal of “making the forests worth more alive than dead”; Until 2009 he was the president of a charity he set up to foster “responsible behaviour” by multi-national companies, the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum. Recently the Prince has embarked upon a new project to prevent ecological disaster called The International Sustainability Unit. The organisation is to work with national governments and global bodies such as the World Bank to promote “sustainable” development.
Hushing Climate Change Doubters
The Prince has also become one of the harshest critics of the Climate Change doubters. During a speech to launch his Start initiative he said, “I have watched with growing dismay and alarm the glee with which the sceptics have leapt upon the recent news stories that question the science that climate change is man-made and suggesting it is nothing more than a myth. Well, if it is but a myth, and the global scientific community is involved in some sort of conspiracy, why is it then that around the globe sea levels are more than six inches higher than they were 100 years ago?” He added: “And, ladies and gentlemen please be in no doubt that the evidence of long-term and potentially irreversible changes to our world is utterly overwhelming.”
A Lavish Lifestyle
The Prince has not himself been without his critics. He has frequently been accused of hypocrisy with the way he conducts his own lifestyle – in February 2009 he was attacked in the media for planning to use private luxury jets to embark on a 16,000 mile round trip tour of South Africa as part of his crusade against global warming. In 2007 he was roundly criticised for flying first class to the U.S. with a 20-strong entourage to collect an environmental award. Environment campaigner and writer George Monbiot said to the media that the Prince was the second biggest carbon user in the country [England], after his mother, and he should take action himself.
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