It’s one of the most curious things in the world to see the British media trip over themselves to praise Prince William’s Earthshot Prize scheme. So far, Earthshot isn’t anything but a plan and a website. It’s a big keen project and it’s being billed as William’s legacy, something he can take credit for, like he’s going to single-handedly save the environment with this. You can see the new website here. They’ve made a big announcement about the members of the Earthshot Council, which includes Queen Rania Al Abdullah (Jordan), Cate Blanchett, Yao Ming and Shakira, as well as actual business figures and diplomats like Christiana Figueres, Jack Ma and Indra Nooyi. I actually like how “global” the council is, but it’s still strange to see William doing Instagram videos with Shakira, you know? It’s almost like he just wants to hang out with celebrities.
What else? There were some questions about where the £50 million in “prize money” was coming from, but the Earthshot site does have a list of “Global Alliance Founding Partners,” so I guess that’s where the money is coming from. Included on the list: Bloomberg Philanthropies, Jack Ma Foundation, Aga Khan Development Network, DP World and Dubai. Basically, a bunch of billionaires all contributed about $10 million each for William’s keen project, which he swears will be “the most ambitious and prestigious of its kind.” $10 million each just so William can take credit and tell people he’s ready to take a “global leadership role.” Hm.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4 this week, William spoke about how he came to environmentalism as his cause. He brought up his father’s decades-long focus on the environment, saying that Charles used be thought of as “dotty” but William wonders “what my father’s banging on about and I’m sure every son thinks the same. But no, publicly, with my father’s environmental credentials, he’s talked about this for a long time and long before people cottoned on to climate change. So I’ve always listened to and learnt and believed in what he’s saying. But I know it’s a very hard sell, 40 years ago, to predict and see some of the slow moving catastrophes we’re heading towards.” Yeah. I’m not a total cynic and I think Earthshot could do some good, and God knows, the environment is in crisis and all that. But again, William’s whole argument is that he’s ready to be keen and he’s an environmentalist because his father is an environmentalist and he’s going to give away prize money and it’s very glamorous. I just…
It’s going to take a lot of big-thinking and innovation to save the one planet we’ve got—and that’s why @KensingtonRoyal’s leadership on climate change can make a real difference. https://t.co/IxzjKbksXu
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 8, 2020
The @Earthshotprize council is a diverse, broad range of people from all around the world who I've been talking to over the last few weeks and months. We've got a really fantastic council together. pic.twitter.com/xnXkyuoxeZ
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) October 8, 2020
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Wow I’m actually surprised how easy it is for celebrities interacting and working with royalty and basically royals needing celebs for outreach. Wow it’s interesting.
Wow sounds like the FFK has gone “Hollywood “, lol.
THIS MAN IS A HUNTER!!!!
How tf he calls himself an environmentalist?
In some cases, hunting can be an important part of conservation; for example, deer hunting to help keep populations under control to maintain the larger ecosystem, python hunting in the Everglades to try to prevent the invasive species from devastating the indigenous fauna, or Lionfish (technically fishing, but it counts) fishing incentives for the same reason.
Of course, trophy hunting and the like are definitely not that.
@Sunday, how about the bloodbath aka gunning down tens of pheasants just so the royals, William , his wife Unable Keen Katie and their son George, can feel all warm and fuzzy inside? These people are gross.
@Babs Sunday is correct and also answered your question before you asked it, so maybe chill with the self righteous indignation.
Also, George is a child, so you should probably leave his name out of your mouth.
Pheasant shoots are basically a form of ranching. The landowner raises the birds in a free range environment and then charges a bunch of amateurs a fee for the privilege of butchering the flock. Often some of that money goes back into supporting the forest.
It’s a rough death for the birds, but their lives are probably a lot nicer than your average chicken’s.
Grouse hunting is not related to conservation at all. It is a rich man’s sport where they raise them specifically for these games. William must stop doing this if he is to be taken seriously.
Such a hypocrite.
So how many comments about how “Hollywood” a conversation with Shakira is and having her and Cate Blanchett be judges will the tabloids have? I’m guessing none.
As I said yesterday, I think this /is/ a good project and can achieve something but as others have said yesterday, climate change solutions can really only be implemented if governments are willing to put it into legislation and corporations change their behaviours. I’m guessing since there are big (and genuine) names behind it, judging it and supporting it on Twitter that has a chance of happening so again, I do think this project will do some good.
Something isn’t prestigious just because you say it is, nor because a bunch of celebrities are attached to it. Bless his heart.
Right? That cracks me up. They introduce it as ‘the most prestigious ever’. Geez Louise, who does that? Plus, it looks like it’s only going to last ten years. Guess the environment will be fixed by then?
Shakira, because he wanted to appear cooler than Harry.
Cate Blanchett- congrats on signing on your name consistently to projects with the shadiest names. Ugh. Did I mention I don’t like her 😁
You’re not alone in your dislike of the phony Cate.
Yep….”see, celebrities think I’m cool too just like my brother.” *barf*
Isn’t one of the stated aims of the prize to make the recipients famous?
Jack Ma as in Alibaba. Are any of the people involved going to work on their own impact on the environment?
I feel like unless some of these ideas actually get implemented, this is not going to turn out how they want. And the awards show is going to be all these celebrities in private jets. All the criticism Harry got for attending that environmental summit is going to apply and more.
It seems more like feelgood pr. I understand why they couldn’t get the Gates Foundation on board.
The potential is there but there’s a weird need for flashiness here that doesn’t fit. It seems less like protecting the environment and more like creating a party and celeb pr.
Also turns out the Earthshot concept was stolen from someone else.
WAIT, Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba the most unrepentant peddler of materialism and consumerism on this planet, is part of this? HAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH.
The Gates Foundation position is that the technology and knowledge is already out there and needs to be implemented.
@Equality. Thank you for your reply yesterday. I appreciate it.
Which could explain why he reportedly passed on getting involved with this
This. Legislation that will implement solutions is needed. Solutions exist but let’s say something truly innovative comes out of this, then what? Will any country implement these ideas/solutions?
Yes, there are a few hypocrisies here. William needs to walk the talk on his own carbon footprint. Suddenly working with celebrities is not too hollywood. Having democrats support your work is now a good thing. Someone copied his homework word for word from someone else. It is no longer considered preaching to the plebs to talk about climate change. It is no longer narcissistic and unroyal to want to change the world. Qwhite interesting development here.
That’s a good point-royalists love to claim royals are above celebrity & are the true stars (Piers Morgan claimed this week they were the biggest stars in the world) but they all tend to rope in a celeb when promoting a new project or initiative.
As I said yesterday it’s funny how Democrats are cool now& not ‘too woke’ for royal. Last I saw KP had only retweeted Obama & Hillary’s tweets about Earthshot but not dear leader Boris Johnson’s tweet on it. I’m guessing KP didn’t ask any Trump administration guys to support this initiative (doubt they would have anyway). goes to my point the other day that William seems to want to lean into ‘woke’ issues and want the ‘liberal/left’ support whilst allegedly being strongly right wing.
Yeah, that was strange, it wasn’t getting that much attention until Obama tweeted about it. They put A LOT of PR into this.
The royals and their fans put down celebrities because they are jealous. And they know Obama and Hillary have more gravitas in their pinkies than the Royal have in all their bodies.
Isn’t environmentalism considered “woke” to the British public? Why aren’t there 20357203523085 articles about how William’s “wokeness” is just so out of step and gauche with the British publish?
Environmentalism and climate change affect white people, therefore it’s okay and safe. Same as mental health and early childhood development. Racism, voting rights, unconscious anti-POC bias, lack of representation, colonialism and it’s effects, and facing our racist histories affects and helps black and other POC, therefore, too dangerously liberally woke, destabilizing, aggressive, violently anti-establishment/anti-government/anti-monarchy, apparently. That seems to be the big difference between the progressive causes that the royals allow themselves to pay lip service support to and the ones that they and the media claim are too woke and too far.
Yeah, all the tabloids are praising William for this. It shows that their anti-wokeness stance is really engaging in faux culture war to generate revenue.
I don’t know about articles but there are a lot of comments on Kensington Twitter complaining about being “woke” and “leftist”, saying he is as bad as Harry and Charles and that the monarchy needs to end.
The RR were silent on the Hillary and Obama retweets when these same jerks went on and on and Sara Latham working for Hillary and how that was so bad. Cambitches did an about face too.
If this project actually pans out, I’m sil for it. With their track record though, I’m holding my applause.
Am I the only one who thinks that global billionaires funneling money to the future future king of England seems a little shady? I’m a huge environmentalist and anything we can do to combat climate change is an important undertaking to be sure, but idk this just seems like a mutually beneficial PR exercise with a laundry list of huge names who could actually enact and inspire real-life changes to their corporate empires and/or jetset lifestyles rather than attach their name to a ‘prestigious’ new award.
My thoughts exactly.
too many double standards to count. though I’m skeptical of the approach, since truly addressing climate change is less about innovating than it is about implementing proven solutions at a global scale, I hope this endeavor is successful for Will. Maybe it’ll make him less bitter.
no, he would definitely be a sore winner.
I hope something good comes of it, but it does have the feel of a bunch of rich narcissists patting themselves on the back. We know what needs to happen to help the environment, we just need governments and corporations to actually do it.
Also, they hypocrisy is staggering and just makes me tired.
He looks like a giant toe.
The judging panel could use a few more scientists.
I was coming here to say that. It would be one thing if celebs like Brian May or Brian Bolla d (The Offspring) were attached. Those two hold PhDs in science (astrophysics and molecular biology respectively). Brian May is also an animal activist who protested against the hunting of foxes (now illegal) so maybe he’s blacklisted from Bill the Great Hunter (I mean environmentalist, thats it, Bill the Great Environmentalist) list because now he can only hunt grouse(At least for photo ops)? Lol
I’d like to add another ex musical Brian to this list that they missed:
Brian Cox, ex of D:Ream, Prof of particle physics, OBE
Elle exactly! No shade to Shakira, but there more than a few musicians with strong science backgrounds
I confess I can’t bear seeing PWT face all over the Countdown project of TED. So, they lost one supporter at least. It’s like Will’s participation or, better saying, pretense for leadership, is taunting the goal. And it doesn’t matter for me how good and respectable the goal could be.
Suddenly this hunter and helicopter rider has become environmentalist. I don’t believe in this transformation.
Never thought that serious and respectable people (Barack Obama and more) who care for the matter would be so enthusiastic because of Royal involvement. Maybe they hope that Will can influence his main fanbase (the Daily Fail readers and Royal fans on social networks) towards more environmentally clean behavior? Doubtful.
Here checking out for Shaki, not for PWT.
Bill’s people sold it to him with that collage of celebrities that includes him. #sowoke #soHollywood
That’s a really big glass of wine in photo above. 10 to 12 ounces maybe? Moderation is a good start for an environmentalist.
Can anyone ID the blue flowers? They look like massive lupines. Hollyhocks?
Delphiniums I think.
Thank you, Amy Too. Those flowers are beautiful, and I am going to try planting them next year.
It’s nice that all these rich people donated $10 million, but what I want to know is, how much did PWT donate? His grandmother is the richest woman in the world, so surely his family could spare a few pennies.
Bored with Woke William.
Shaki is amazing. Surprised that Wills was open to having a public conversation with someone who makes him look so suboptimal.
I said this yesterday, this will be just like the clip he did with lady gaga for heads together(I checked and it ONLY has 118k views)😆. The fact that none of the global news like france24, dwtv..etc bothered to report this says it all. So far,I only saw cnn & et canada reporting about this. Billy thought getting celebrities will guarantee interest😂
I’m not going to begrudge this effort if it does some good, but billionaires will fund this type of stuff and not want to pay more taxes to benefit everyone. There definitely is a huge amount of hypocrisy in the press toward William being praised for being in documentaries, hobnobbing with celebrities and billionaires, and “ woke” politicians, but whatever. We all see it even if others throw rocks and hide their hands every time someone else says anything.
I appreciate serious efforts to solve destructive climate change.
But this endeavor Earthshot is still a wide shot into the dark! From what I see on its website it’s still a work in progress after nine months and more ego-driven (focused on William’s PR) than eco-driven (focused on real problems and solutions).
If William wants to pull this off successfully it will require his consistent inspirational leadership and support from a dedicated team of experts.
His coming TED talk should reveal his vision and smart goals for the decade. He’s not a natural charismatic leader, but I wish him good luck, for Earth’s sake.
A bunch of rich people throwing money at this prize is not the answer – rich people are the problem, because they keep investing in carbon emitting projects that disproportionately impact the environment. See the affluence problem in climate change:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16941-y
Shakira is so darn charming & eloquent. I could listen to her talk all day. This was a sweet interaction, they had some entertaining conversational chemistry.
I think William wants a cookie for assembling a council that’s not just white bros – “a diverse AND wide range of people”. Here’s hoping they have a real role to play.
Thinking about all this, this feels like a much more ambitious version of William’s failed initiative with Facebook and Twitter. William who is incredibly irresponsible about his environmental footprint teams up with people like Jack Ma and gives them a way to pretend they’re doing something but it’s all fluff. That’s why the panel has people like Cate Blanchett.
The awards show part of William’s approach is classic rich people behavior. Throw a party for themselves and attach a cause to it to not seem too decadent.