One of Prince William’s favorite subjects is how we need to save the environment or conserve wildlife for his children specifically. It’s possible William’s intention is to make people think about their kids and future generations in general, but his actual words are usually limited to: think about the world and the empire Prince George will inherit. Which is funny to me, because William always reveals that he can’t see past his own nose. Anyway, we’re still talking about William’s BBC interview, the same one where he dissed space cowboy billionaires. Of course he returned to his favorite subject, how terrible it would be if the environment was still a disaster when George becomes king.
A story about George: “George at school recently has been doing litter picking, and I didn’t realize but talking to him the other day he was already showing that he was getting a bit confused. [He was] a bit sort of annoyed by the fact they went out litter picking one day and then the very next day, they did the same route, same time and pretty much all the same litter they picked up was back again. And I think that for him, he was trying to understand how and where it all came from. He couldn’t understand, he’s like, ‘Well, we cleaned this. Why has it not gone away?'” William noted that George “is acutely aware, more so than the other two at the moment.”
On his other children: “Charlotte is just a bit young, she’s still not quite sure and actually Louis just enjoys playing outside the whole time — he lives outside. But I think it is slowly dawning on them that these things matter but when you are that young, you just want to have fun and enjoy it. I feel bad, because I don’t want to give them the burden of that worry.”
He’s passed down his eco-habits to George: “[He knows] not to overuse water, being careful with our resources, turning off light switches, things like that, which was instilled in me growing up.” William emphasizes “education is really key.”
Think of the kingdom George will inherit: “It shouldn’t be that there’s a third generation now coming along having to ramp it up even more. And you know, for me, it would be an absolute disaster if George is sat here talking to you or your successor, Adam, you know in like 30 years’ time, whatever, still saying the same thing — because by then we will be too late.”
His children should get to enjoy the environment: “I want the things that I’ve enjoyed — the outdoor life, nature, the environment — I want that to be there for my children, and not just my children but everyone else’s children. If we’re not careful we’re robbing from our children’s future through what we do now. And I think that’s not fair.”
This was fascinating to me: “He couldn’t understand, he’s like, ‘Well, we cleaned this. Why has it not gone away?'” George is his father’s son, because that’s William’s mindset too. William doesn’t understand why he can’t just announce something and have it be done and dusted. He doesn’t understand why he can’t just say he’s bored with racism and suddenly racism will be done. He doesn’t understand why he can’t just say he’s keen about the environment and suddenly the environment is fixed. As for the rest of it… William is definitely leaning into the narrative that George is different, even from his siblings, that the littlest heir is already being prepared and that he’s already “special.”
Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace, Avalon Red and Backgrid.
The more important question is are you aware of environmental issues William? Because at the moment your hypocritical actions don’t really reflect that do they?
Children are hugely influenced by their parents behaviour (there’s an early years insight for you Kate) so maybe he should think about that
I saw a Q & A on their insta story,it was rather close in terms of camera angle. His skin,mouth area and teeth were very smokerish. I think Harry and Kate no longer smoke but it shows on William,thought they were social smokers in Uni,he needs to quit.
Kate has a heavy beauty regimen. I would not be shocked if she whitens. She does have the same smoker lines around her mouth like her mother. And Carole still smokes.
I googled Carole about smoking there is nothing about that.
Carole was definitely photographed with smokes in the dating years. Most of that has been wiped from the net though.
But I thought what was on the net stayed on the net forever? How is it possible these things are ‘wiped’?
They are removed from google searches but there are still photos here and there in certain forums. So usually wiped means not easily found in a google search because the original article or photo has been edited.
It doesn’t sound to me like William actually understands the threat that climate change poses. It’s not about being able to play outside in 30 years. Its about Mustique disappearing underwater, its about whole species becoming extinct (which then impacts other species), its about more natural disasters, etc. He seems to have such a narrow view of this issue, and I don’t know if that’s because that’s just what gets press or if thats actually how he views it.
Also – being careful with your water usage is a good thing. You know what’s better? Not taking helicopters on a routine basis.
Agreed. William is completely clueless. Like his wife, with her “aarly years are really important to a child’s development”, he keeps repeating the same “climate change lite” soundbites – as he says: “I want the things that I’ve enjoyed — the outdoor life, nature, the environment — I want that to be there for my children”
And, er, that’s it. I bet if someone grilled him on the true extent and impact of climate change, he wouldn’t have a clue because all of this is just performative for him. And, over on the other thread, there’s Harry writing op-eds about corporate actions that will be incredibly harmful to wildlife, the eco-system and the lives of people far removed from his back garden. Bringing our attention to what we can actually DO (sign the open letter/protest) to change things. What solutions is William bringing forth? He really is just so hopeless. He could have access and advice to the BEST people and he doesn’t bother.
I can’t believe Egg Head and Waity still use helicopters the way they do, post-Kobe. They probably hop in that thing to go grocery shopping at this point.
Exactly. He doesn’t understand because he hasn’t put in any work to learn. This whole thing is a vanity project for him likely because he and his people realized that he was nearing the age of 40 with nothing noteworthy under his belt despite the enormous privilege he has had since birth. Meanwhile his father had already set up the Prince’s Trust and other endeavours by that point in his life. And on top of that Willileaks was being outclassed and outpaced by both of the Sussexes. So now he is hopping on the eco bandwagon to try and make some sort of name for himself, but it’s all superficial surface-level.
I’ve done a lot of consulting to environmental organizations over the past two decades and William is correctly using the research on how to get people to care about the climate. You have to make it personal to them. Telling them the nature and outdoor spaces they love will be lost forever is infinitely more effective than trying to scare them with future natural disasters.
Sure, but that’s ALL he ever says. There’s absolutely no indication in anything he says that he understands the bigger picture. It’s always about George not being able to enjoy the outdoors.
To me, its more like someone had to “make it personal” in order for William to understand it, and so he just parrots that point over and over again.
@Becks1. I agree. I think he is just parroting the power point presentation that he was given by his aides. Beyond that he has nothing to contribute. He has no in depth understanding of the concept. He is coming up to age 40 and he has nothing to show or any accomplishments.
He latched unto Harry’s mental health initiatives and took credit for Harry hard work. Harry left and suddenly he latches onto the environmental issue. Something Charles has been passionate about for generations. He is a lazy lay about, failing upwards.
@Nina. I noticed that the mental health campaign by the Cambridges has slowly faded away from their strong list of advocacies. No more follow through.
Apart from the helicopter rides how about totally renovating a new kitchen, renovating apartments/homes every couple of years, moving a tennis court a couple of feet just because you can?
That wasteful behavior also has an impact.
He makes it sound like George was annoyed he’d have to do some work AGAIN. I did this once…certainly you don’t expect me to do it again?
Trash picking INDEED.
That’s what I got too. “You mean I have to clean EVERY DAY!?”
In this instance, I’m w/George…….
Yeah, that quote about George doesn’t exactly sound the way he thinks it does. The way he talks about all of his kids here is…interesting.
George gets pretty much a small paragraph dedicated to his environmental efforts and Charlotte and Louis get one throwaway line about it. Yes he’s right that they are younger than George and won’t know as much about it as him but I would imagine Charlotte at least is learning something? She’s 6, not 3 like Louis.
Maybe I’m looking into it too much and it’s all perfectly normal (not everyone cares about the environment and Charlotte may be one of them) but it makes me stop because of this family’s dysfunction in general and the way they treat the heir vs the spare. And it starts young.
@Sofia. Youre right. He sounded quite dismissive of Charlotte in particular, putting her in the same category as the other spare even tho shes closer in age to george than to her baby brother (cant rmbr his name)
I think it’s perfectly normal for an 8 year old to wonder how something he cleaned up became immediately dirty again.
Sure, but the way he frames it, it doesn’t come off as a curious kid wondering why his efforts didn’t stick. He even mentions how George was “annoyed” at a different point in the piece.
That’s exactly what I got from this as well. Not really the cute lil’ anecdote you thought it was, Willy.
Yes, and Willy pointing out only George being intrigued about the trash the following day doesn’t scream that George is very aware about the environment. In addition to Willy stating that he is very concerned about what the environment will be once George is grown, what type of message is Willy sending that their use of a personal helicopter is perfectly acceptable due to the impact of each of us??
You learn from your parents an enormous amount of insight into your adulthood until you hopefully learn otherwise. Children don’t grow up to be racists, homophobic or abusive husbands! They are repeating what they see as “normal” as they grow up.
They take helicopters and private jets everywhere, but wow, good for them for turning off a light switch.
At the very least campaign for Balmoral to no longer be exempt from environmental regulations.
That was my first thought when he talked about conserving resources. Hypocrisy at its finest.
Me too! This is hilarious set against a backdrop of private jets and helicopters: “He’s passed down his eco-habits to George.”
All I got from this is George is already being separated from his siblings and is treated differently because he’s heir to the throne. And that William has no relationship with Charlotte and knows nothing about her.
Yep and the youngest (what’s his name … he plays a lot).
+1 Amy – and why would he need to? She’s not going to be the
one replacing him on the throne so why would she matter?
Sigh…these people are so fcuked up and gross.
#AbolishTheMonarchy
They never speak of the younger spares unless it’s to prop up George anymore.
I feel like William has no relationship with George either. He gets brownie points from the press when he mentions the kids, so it’s always, “George is interested in X” where X is what William is doing that day. Visiting a fire station: George likes fire trucks. Visiting a petting zoo: George is interested in snakes. Visiting a hospital: George likes ambulances. Ad naseaum. The kid is just being used to prop up daddy at this point.
It would appear that he sees his children only in relation to him rather than as separate individuals. His solipsism is off the charts.
This. It’s strange that he always mentions George, but rarely even remembers the other children. But I’ll give George credit where credit is due: if he’s even half as interested in these things (fire trucks and airplanes and “the environment”) as Will seems to think he is, he is the Keenest member of his family. Because his parents don’t seem to care about anything at all.
Yeah, he’s definitely going to heavily reinforce the heir-spare dynamic for his kids after his lifelong scapegoat left.
@AmyBee I feel so sorry for George. Actually, for all three of them. God help them once they’re old enough for the tabloids to start in on them.
Imagine knowing that your parent doesn’t think you are special because you happened to not be born first. No one asks to be born at all, let alone to fulfill the role of “spare.” These people are so awful and proud of their awfulness. Abolish the monarchy.
I think someone told William to make the causes seem personal to him and he came up with this “just think of George!” gimmick…
tbh it is something his audience of 65+ (you know, the audience that should have been Charlie’s) would find endearing, so I cannot for certain day it is not effective but it is surely 1) short slighted , 2) boring and 3) generic.
In short:this is on brand!
A bit sort of annoyed? Are these the embarrassing results of pricey private education in the UK? Why does he even open his mouth when his royal loafers just plop right back in. Yikes.
Yes, I winced at that. He really is incredibly inarticulate. Even his full on speeches, which presumably someone writes for him, are dull, shallow and weak. Especially when he delivers them with all the enthusiasm of a man contemplating a prostate examination without lube.
My youngest did this last spring with her elementary school (in the Netherlands) on a Saturday, and tbh, she and her friends reacted similarly to George. They were also pissed off that the garbage came back so quickly after they’d spent part of a weekend cleaning it up on the national cleaning-up day (Landelijke Opschoondag in Dutch). I think George’s reaction is normal?
Just to clarify: turning off lights and such (as William self-admittedly does) does not compensate for using private planes, etc. I do not believe that we should try to save the Earth by doing everything William does! I just wanted to point out that his 8 year old son reacted similarly to my own daughter in terms of being shocked at how much people litter.
I think that George’s thinking is very much in line with what other 8 year olds think. I don’t think it’s coming from a place of “ugh why am I doing this again?!?!?” as in him being a spoilt brat but more him going “wait, I just cleaned this up yesterday so how did it come back”. A lot of 8 year olds don’t think beyond what’s currently happening now and what’s directly affecting them.
(Please note I am speaking very generally and am not trying to say “ALL 8 year olds are like this” but simply trying to give an explanation as to George’s behaviour. Maybe he is spoilt and this is a sign he’ll only care about himself but I don’t want to assume that at his age)
My kids would often do trash clean ups, big (large community parks and waterways) and small (trash on the side of the road to and from school). I always framed it for them in terms of consumption, how we pay for packaging on a large and small scale, and how we need to push corporations to be more responsible about what packaging they use and encourage. Now my kids are raging anti-capitalists, so this is unlikely to be Will’s tactic. Wouldn’t want George dismantling the Royal system on account if the hypocrisy he’s enmeshed in, eh?
Agreed. Are some of the commenters really willing to think the worst of an 8 year old? I think some of y’all are letting the distaste of his parents rub off on him. He can wonder about why trash keeps appearing on the side of the road without it being a laziness/entitlement thing.
Yeah George’s reaction seemed on par with what I would expect from a kid his age; we do lots of clean-up hikes and walks with Scouts and the scouts all have similar reactions – “there’s MORE trash??” so I think George’s reaction is perfectly normal.
It’s William’s description though of him as “acutely aware” but the other two just don’t get it – he’s 8, Charlotte is 6.5. That’s not that big an age difference, if George can be “acutely aware” and can be frustrated by constant littering, surely Charlotte can as well.
And even that wouldn’t be a big deal if it weren’t part of the overall pattern we see from the Cambridges – George is central, the other two are not.
@Becks1: I agree with you (and have written a similar thing in a reply to a comment above)
Where are the comments criticizing George here? Most are questioning why William is not including Charlotte or Louis or William’s hypocrisy on all environmental issues.
Anyone notice he doesn’t discuss sacrificing anything to help the environment except Africans not having children. Also his George talk got him dragged on twitter.
that second to last picture, 🤣🤣🤣
Last night on fox News gutfeld, william was referred to as a royal moron. I wonder how Charles feels with will, full on, taking over his eco warrior platform. Using the kids again huh willie?.
@Margaret, seriously? Fox has recently become very pro-BRF (because Meghan) so it’s interesting if they diverged from their usual talking points.
I know we don’t like William but his explanation of how George reacted to more trash showing up in the exact same spot he and his classmates spent time cleaning up seems pretty typical for an 8 year old. I remember not quite understanding why people littered or what it meant at that age. Shows like Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street really helped me understand that kind of thing (and school of course). At that age, you are just grasping what throwing trash into nature actually represents, how sadly common it is, how humans are pretty disgusting in their consumption. It’s a huge reach to compare that to William’s mindset of doing things and expecting them to be done because he’s tired of it. The two really aren’t that comparable. George is just starting to understand what climate change is, how humanity impacts the environment. Let’s not write him off quite yet.
That being said, while I hope George will do better than his father, I don’t hold much hope because of William’s attitude and the way he goes about things.
With such parents, I don’t hold out much hope for George. At age 8 he is treated more ‘special” than his siblings. Even wearing a look alike suit standing next to William with his siblings having to stay home.
Thanks, that was fab!
“Still, 16 days out from Cop26, it seems to be House of Windsor week for making helpful interventions on climate. In terms of truly selfless good deeds, I’m holding out for Prince Andrew pledging never again to fly to America, or indeed to any US jurisdictions. When you consider the Duke of York once gas-guzzled his way to New York simply to see a paedo and tell him he couldn’t be buddies any more – hey, we’ve all done it – you get a sense of the meaningful lifestyle compromises this family is prepared to make in the course of causing ordinary subjects to explode at the Marie Antoinettishness of it all. Admittedly, these explosions are not at all good for the cause, but you can’t have everything.”
🙂
That 2nd sentence in the quote you shared is absolute gold. ‘Meaningful lifestyle comprimises’ is a pretty damn good too. Thanks for sharing.
Everything William does is to benefit William first and foremost. Save the planet for me and my heir! How dare these self made billionaires go to space instead of saving the planet so my kids can enjoy the outdoors. The planet could be covered in spilled oil and Williams kids will always have acres of pristine green space, even when the rest of us are choking on smoke. The thing with the royals is they will jump on and bandwagon an issue, then just forget about it. Remember how they were all gung ho on mental health, Heads Together? Now that’s on the back burner, they barely mention it and do even less. Now they’re all about the environment but do very little outside their own sphere, beyond talking and scolding, even Charles. I just think Will wants to get a photo with Greta Thunberg, then he can say mission accomplished.
I think Greta Thunberg would give Willnot a piece of her mind. He should be scared of Greta, a young woman who walks the walk and talks the talk. Unlike Little Willie.
There’s no snark like English snark. Thanks for the link!
I feel bad for George. Chances that ‘the right ingredients’ are going to turn into something (or rather, some*one*) unpalatable are high. But that’s not a child’s fault…
The future future king does not sacrifice. He asks others to sacrifice for him. And I doubt anyone in that nuclear family is acutely aware of anything except their own comfort, pleasures, rights, entitlements, honors, property, money and adulation. Ask them to sacrifice so much as a one, and you can rightly fuck off. That’s just my take. Lord, I’m starting to hate this man.
No idea if Will is quoting an actual conversation he had with George. No idea if the Thomas Battersea school for aristo kids has a day or two where the students are picking up litter that’s not theirs. Honestly, most kids would complain. Heck, getting them to clean their own room is a challenge much less cleaning up after other people. Sounds like a performative sound bite embiggening himself and using George to appeal to people with children.
If Will, Mr. Green, really wanted to make an impactful statement, he could have months ago. During the Euro finals when the stadium grounds and streets were a fecking mess of litter. Did George and his parents not notice then? Will wouldn’t sound off about that-he’d worry about offending fellow fans. Missed opportunity to actually be a statesman. Then again we’re talking about the same person who is a FFK and walked out of the final without congratulating the winning team. Will is a tosser with his word salading.
what will George think? William does not even factor the spare and the spare to spare in the equation. There may not even be a throne for George.
Charlotte is not “too young.” There are families who take their children and all of them to recycling events in the neighborhood to make them aware of helping the environment. Charlotte is not two, she’s born about two years after her older brother.
I’m sure Charlotte understands the concept of litter but they are playing up the heir. Charlotte seems very aware of other things and being close enough in age to George, she is likely more advanced in certain social things than George was at the same age, which is a normal phenomenon when you have two kids close in age. The younger one makes an extra effort to keep up with the older one.
But of course William is going to continue the poisonous heir is better than the spare narrative because that family is toxic and he won’t break the cycle since he benefitted from it.
Louis is the only one too young to not understand the concept of litter and how it returns.
But really this whole family has a carbon footprint that exceeds thousands of peasants added together so a whole lot more needs to be done by them to be taken seriously on this issue.
I don’t believe William turns the lights off himself, sorry. Kate, yes, because she grew up as a normal person at least.
Why doesn’t he retrofit Anmer with solar panels? Why doesn’t he work with his father on doing similar retrofits of their dozens of residences? Why doesn’t he switch his fleet of vehicles to hybrid or electric? Why doesn’t he have cisterns built on his properties to capture rain water? Why do he and Kate take helicopters everywhere? This is all just William Weasel Words.