When "prince" Charlie asks Brian WILLIAMS, "Are we SUSTAINABLE?!1" is he an environmentalist?!1

[UTUSN]

Or is it his noblesse skipping over his and his family's existing from a population's economic contributions to him and them. Not a question.


Sorry, but I'm a Dem in both the capital-D and little-d senses, so "royalty" is an abhorrent concept to me.

[Staph]

1. He's been an environmentalist for decades.

Since the early 1980s, Charles has taken a keen interest in environmental issues, taking a leadership role in promoting environmentally sensitive thinking. Upon his moving into his Highgrove estate, he became increasingly focused on organic farming, an attention that culminated in the 1990 launch of his own organic brand: Duchy Originals, which now sells more than 200 different sustainably produced products, from food to garden furniture, the profits from which (£6 million, as of 2008) are donated to The Prince's Charities. Documenting this work on his estate, Charles co-authored (with Charles Clover, environment editor of the Daily Telegraph) Highgrove: An Experiment in Organic Gardening and Farming, published in 1993, and offers his patronage to Garden Organic. Along similar lines, the Prince of Wales became involved with farming and various industries within it, regularly meeting with farmers to discuss their trade; though the 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic in the UK prevented Charles from visiting farmers in Saskatchewan, organic farmers there came to meet him at the Assiniboia town hall. In 2004, he also founded the Mutton Renaissance Campaign, which aims to support British sheep farmers and make mutton more attractive to Britons. His organic farming efforts, however, attracted media criticism: According to The Independent in October, 2006 "...the story of Duchy Originals has involved compromises and ethical blips, wedded to a determined merchandising programme." and, in February 2007, Duchy products themselves came under attack, with the tabloid Daily Mail claiming that the food was "unhealthier than Big Macs." In 2007, Charles also launched The Prince's May Day Network, which encourages businesses to take action on climate change.

from Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Charles

Whatever you think of royalty, this is a guy who has tried to make the world a better place. This is not one of the Bushes. The Windsors have a long history of service to their nation. He's one of the good guys.

[Hannah Bell]

8. he's been a phoney for decades.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. He's very genuine. And he's done a lot for the environment...

Kudos to him for doing something worthwhile...

[lumpy]

29. No shit, he is 100 times the man Dubya is. Charlie does have

some good to contribute.

[4lbs]

11. Really? In what way?

[WinkyDink]

18. WTH are you on about? He is most decidedly NOT phony, re: environmental causes.

[Faygo Kid]

2. Whatever. Yes, he's an environmentalist, kind of a twit.

But ultimately I think his heart is in the right place. Plus, he will never be king, because the queen will live to be 100, like her mother.

I'm more pissed off by the Royal Families here in the U.S. (aka the Koch Brothers) who can buy and sell the British royal family 10 or 100 times over and who are doing incalculable damage to our nation and the world.

So if Charlie says a good word about the environment, I say, good for him.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Yes, he's been a green advocate for decades

Nobody ever listens to him, though.

[UTUSN]

4. Just saying, what size was the GE - COMCAST - NBC deal for 2 hrs of prime time?!1

First, the Brian (the Wedding Cake Guy) interview, then the Charlie documentary.


Yeah, a true environmentalist. If I grew up as Alexander with Aristotle as my tutor I would have some noblesse about me, too. He, his mum, and the rest of them need to earn a living.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

5. Try the Duchy Originals ginger biscuits, they're delicious.

http://www.duchyoriginals.com/

[JI7]

6. Charles is a liberal

[Missy Vixen]

7. I was pleasantly surprised by his comments on the news

He said he's trying to get people to think about their footprint on the world.

Let's face it, the guy's not perfect, but he asks some fairly thought-provoking questions.

[Hannah Bell]

12. he wants to be reincarnated as a epidemic virus so he could kill people.

typical upper-class perspective.

he's a hypocritical upper-class twat who uses 100s of times the resources ordinary people do.

[Violet_Crumble]

13. That's totally incorrect. Prince Charles never said that. His father did...

So far you've made a lot of claims about Prince Charles that just aren't true. Do you just not like him because he's got more money than you or something?

[Hannah Bell]

14. oh, right, it was daddy. charles wants to be reincarnated as a tampon.

i forgot, so hard to keep the important pronouncements of the aristocracy straight.

charles is the fraud with 7 estates & a hobby farm, who sells expensive yuppie biscuits and uses 100 times more resources jetting around to make his stupid pronouncements on the environment than any ordinary person does.

"Prince Charles has known Clarence House since he was in diapers, sleeping under quilt covers decorated with drawings of nursery rhymes in a room with chintz curtains.

Now 58, he is once again calling the four-story, 40,000-square-foot town house, a five-minute walk from Buckingham Palace, his London home."

40,000 square feet, almost as big as bill gates' palace -- but the prince has several others.

when prince phil starts living in an 800-sq ft manse, buying all his stuff second hand, & biking like i do he can lecture me on "sustainability," when the prince does something with his money besides run a yuppie hobby farm & lecture people, and that'll be when pigs fly.

fuck him & all the other entitled pigs who presume to give lessons to the peons on "sustainability". they're the prime cause of the world's environmental problems & the biggest bunch of lying hypocrites that ever existed. prince charles' income comes from sweating labor all over the globe.

[Violet_Crumble]

16. You forgot coz none of it's got to do with his environmental work....

So far you haven't got anything right that you've said about him and seem only interested in raging and slagging him off coz he's got more money than you. There's nothing hypocritical about him being an environmentalist, nor has he lied about it. Nor is anyone 'lecturing' you on sustainability or environmentalism. As far as I'm aware you don't have a track record of being an environmentalist, while Prince Charles does. He's a wanker when it comes to other things, but it's people like him who get the media attention that are needed to get the message out there. If you don't like that and want to limit who can be an environmentalist based on how little money they have, then feel free to start yr own cause...

[Hannah Bell]

24. There is something hypocritical about lecturing ordinary people about

their resource use when he uses 100 times the resources of any peon.

[WinkyDink]

20. "entitled pigs"? Charlie Manson, is that you?

[Hannah Bell]

23. yes, charles is an entitled pig. he lives in wealth for free by virtue of his birth,

& lectures ordinary people about taking shorter showers.

your attempt to compare me to charles manson is a violation of the new DU rules.

[lumpy]

30. Hate the privilieged much ? Hatred is better directed toward

warmongering, evil doing, and that sort of stuff.

[Hannah Bell]

31. The super-rich do most of the evil in the world & make most of the wars.

[WinkyDink]

19. Oh, brother. That was his ignorant old man Phillip. Try Google.

[Odin2005]

9. He's a kooky woo-woo luddite.

[mr blur]

15. He's an expensively-educated but ignorant inbred Woo-crazed halfwit.

He drones on about "sustainable" lifestyles while living in palaces, owning vast chunks of the countryside, traveling everywhere by private planes, cars and private trains, talking to plants and pushing half-baked drivel as an alternative to science.

[WinkyDink]

21. Would you seriously expect the heir to the ancient British crown to live like John the Baptist and

eat locusts in the desert?

[mr blur]

22. I'd have some respect for him if he did.

The institution of "ancient British crown" is an insulting embarrassment to all of us in the UK and he's one of the worst of them.

[WinkyDink]

17. Oh, p;lease. We capitalize titles, even "President." And PRINCE Charles is a LONG-time environment-

alist, way before Gore.

[Hannah Bell]

25. he's a phoney "environmentalist," like gore.

actual environmentalists don't live in 40,000 sq ft mansions or jet around the world telling people what to do, nor do they live in great wealth off the backs of sweated labor. nor do they run yuppie hobby farms & pretend that this represents an alternative to industrial agriculture.

[Nikia]

26. He's an environmentalist but he plays his other part

Which he may feel comfortable with because that's the way he was raised and that was what was expected of him. Most environmentalists are between the extremes, wealthy people who play that part and people living very minimalistically. Most people are are only making small changes to what they are comfortable with, but that makes them immensely better than climate change deniers and those who cannot be bothered to walk 10 feet to the recycleable containers to recycle instead of throwing away. Anyone who speaks in favor of saving the environment or makes any changes in their lives for that cause is doing something positive for the environment.
He could just say nothing and continue living the lifestyle that is expected of him, but why would that be better than him speaking out. The fact that he plays the part of a powerful person helps him reach more people than if he lived by himself or family off the land.

[renate]

27. exactly. I'm not doing everything I COULD do, either

But, like you said, I don't think that means that what I do try to do to limit my footprint isn't worthwhile.

And another thing you said, about how he could say nothing, is exactly right. With some exceptions, most of his predecessors, although they had their charities, didn't do nearly as much in their own lives to practice what they preached, nor did they choose potentially controversial topics to get behind. He did a LOT to promote organic farming before it was nearly as popular as it is now. Admittedly, it seems a little ridiculous for somebody with a lifestyle like his to tell anyone else how to live, so I can understand people's objections, but I think it's not useful to complain about somebody with a high profile, regardless of how he got it (and I'm not going to throw any stones at someone who was born lucky, the circumstances of my birth having almost 100% to do with my current circumstances... if I were born in the slums of Calcutta, I wouldn't be sitting here at a laptop, in a warm room, with a full belly), doing his best to increase awareness of a serious problem. His commitment to a green/liberal cause is the kind of thing I'm happy to see in someone who's going to play an even more important leadership role eventually.

So anyway, :thumbsup: to both of the points you made.

[Hannah Bell]

32. for every person he "reaches" he turns 10 more off with his hypocrisy.

and that's fodder for right-wing populists to use against the whole idea.

"lifestyle choices" aren't going to bring sustainability. it's an upper-class fantasy, as demonstrated by someone like charles' inability to give up any of their MASSIVE, ENERGY-CONSUMING PERKS.

Yet the twit expects ordinary people to measure their showers & toilet paper use. WHY SHOULD THEY? Because the hypocritical prince of fucking wales says so? Please.

fuck him & the rest of the delusional upper-class twits.

[Dappleganger]

28. I don't really give a fuck...

royalty is completely irrelevant now.