Posted on 12/07/2006 12:31:42 PM PST by NormsRevenge
LONDON - Putting his money where his environmentalist mouth is, Prince Charles is swapping gas-guzzling private planes and helicopters for commercial flights, train journeys and biodiesel cars.
A longtime champion of green causes, the heir to the throne says action is needed now to avoid leaving a ruined planet to the next generation.
"From February, we are going to look at the diary and see what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint," a spokeswoman for the prince's London residence, Clarence House, said Thursday on condition of anonymity in line with royal rules. "Wherever possible, we will be making less use of helicopters and chartered planes and rely more on car journeys, scheduled flights and trains."
The prince is also having his Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles converted to run on 100 percent biodiesel and is converting to the use of electricity from sustainable sources at his London and country homes, the spokeswoman said.
Energy-efficient boilers that burn wood chips are being installed at his country homes at Highgrove in southern England — where he farms organically — and at Birkhall in Scotland.
For the first time, the prince's annual accounts published next summer will include details of his household's carbon emissions and set targets to reduce this.
The royals have traditionally used private transport. But pressure to be more cost-effective has seen the scrapping of the royal yacht Britannia and cuts in the use of the royal train.
Charles' mother, Queen Elizabeth II, recently took a scheduled train for the first time, to Norfolk in eastern England, but has not announced any plans to cut emissions produced by her palaces.
Charles, whose green views once led the tabloids to lampoon him as a "loony" who talked to plants, has also launched an initiative to help businesses monitor cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
The prince's food company, Duchy Originals, which generates more than $1.8 million a year for his charities, is measuring the levels of greenhouse gases it emits in producing everything from biscuits to bacon.
"We are consuming the resources of our planet at such a rate that we are, in effect, living off credit and living on borrowed time," the prince said Wednesday at the launch of his Accounting for Sustainability program. "So it is, of course, our children and grandchildren who will have to pay off this debt and we owe it to them — and to ourselves — to do something about it before it is too late."
Prime Minister Tony Blair told the launch that the prince's initiative will allow companies "to measure what it is they're doing and ... take the action necessary to reduce harmful practices."
Environmental groups applauded Charles' latest initiatives, saying Blair's Labour government is not responding actively enough to calls to reduce global warming.
"As future king, his opinion will hopefully prove harder for our government to ignore," said Green Party spokeswoman Sian Berry.
It is more than 20 years since Charles first espoused organic farming methods, local food sourcing and sustainable development.
In a dig at his critics Wednesday, he said conservation matters were once considered fringe issues — "I know, because I was beyond the fringe" — but they are now part of "increasingly urgent and mainstream debate."
Yeah you can always tell which horse trailer she uses ... it's the one with the fancy hat graphics on the side.
Can't he just borrow Camilla's broom?
Just think of the carbon emissions that Charlie could avoid if he just stopped giving press conferences, shut his yap, and stayed in his room.
... a security nightmare for his bodyguards.
But the "common man" is not supposed to know this and, Charles hopes, the media surely won't tattle.
If he wants to be consistent, he should do the following now and when he becomes king:
1. Sell Highgrove and buy a country house of no more than 3,000 square feet.
2. Live in a home in London of no more than 3,000 square feet.
3. Move offices and staff to an existing office building - do not maintain a separate palace for offices.
4. Sell Buckingham Palace.
5. Sell Kensington Palace.
6. Sell Balmoral Castle.
7. Sell Windsor Castle.
8. Sell St. James Palace.
9. Sell all other properties which require resources for maintenance, water, heat, cooling, etc.
10. Donate all proceeds from said sales to any phony baloney global warming initiative of his choice, or if he really wants to throw his money away, the UN.
Knock yourself out, Prince Chuckster!
They need to thoroughly screen him before he boards. Who knows what they taught him in Pakistan.
Here's hoping QEII lives longer than her mother did.
Well, at least one of these elitist jerks is finally is going to start acting like they are preaching us to act.
He should probably tell his own brother to stop calling in the RAF to be her personal taxi service.
You're so evil! I think I love you! ROFL! :P
ROTFLMAO!
Ok - you owe me a new keyboard - mine was just ruined by coffee! Too funny!
Chuckie will be 90 by the time he gets on the throne. I mean the one he doesn't visit daily. The King one.
He didn't said he was riding a mule.
Prince Charles is going to fly commercial?
Considering his cozy relationship with the UK's Muslims, and his sympathetic views towards Islam, I would view him as a potential security threat.
Keep him away from the cockpit. You just never know.
I would say to Prince Charles- "Why are you so strange - just let William be King and be done with it!"
But, truly, I actually have sympathy for Charlie - he seems so mixed up!
(My Irish ancestors from County Cork are rolling in their graves for my saying that!).
-- Irish Bunches.
He could just cut off all the electric power in England and wherever else he lives. And travel by horse. I don't think anyone will mind.
Has he seen a shrink lately?
This is a huge sacrifice for Charlie. Now he’ll have to crate Camilla and check her into the cargo hold with the other dogs. Doesn't look like she'll fit under the seat.
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