The Earthshot Prize ceremony was held mid-October last year. The Duchess of Cambridge wore an old McQueen frock and Prince William tried to look like a Bond villain in a turtleneck and velvet jacket. It was a lot, and yet it was barely anything. I had the impression that the actual Keenshot ceremony was a flop and there wasn’t much interest in the awards, but maybe that’s my bias. I also got a vibe that once Keenshot was done, William felt kind of relieved. I believe he was already bored of the shiny object his office had set up for him and credited him with. It was, like so many of Kate’s projects, little more than busy work and an excuse to “do events” and “look important.” Still, they’re trying to make Keenshot his big signature “thing,” so that’s why he’s issuing statements about this year’s awards and how they’re being expanded:
After the resounding success of Prince William’s inaugural Earthshot Prize, the royal says he’s now focused on expanding the committee’s hunt for innovative climate change solutions even further in order to make sure they’re promoting the best ideas possible.
The royal has already started the search for the next round of groundbreaking, award-worthy ideas, expanding the prize’s nomination network to include 300 organizations and people from around the world. From these nominees, five winners will ultimately be chosen and given $1.4 million each to execute their proposals. Both the winners and an additional ten finalists will also be given mentorships to help scale their projects, which this year tackled issues from plastic pollution to ocean degradation.
The Duke of Cambridge said in a statement, “The 2021 Winners and Finalists have set the bar incredibly high. As the nominations for 2022 open, I can’t wait to see what solutions the Prize helps to champion this coming year.” He added, “In 2022, we are determined to go further by seeking even more nominations from every corner of the world, ensuring that we spotlight and scale the very best ideas and innovations that will put our planet on a sustainable path and protect our world for generations to come.”
Yeah, so submit your applications if you’re working on green solutions. This year’s Keenshot Awards are being held in America – William announced that at last year’s awards. Alongside that, someone at Kensington Palace indicated that William and Kate are “very focused on America” these days and they want a “high profile” in American markets. After eleven years of their petty, parochial little reindeer games in the UK, they think they can waltz over to America and be instantly beloved.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
As if this is will keep Earthflop from flopping even more this year 😴😴
Terra cacas will always flop. From the winners who we can’t remember to the millions of viewers, the BBC lost when the ceremony was shown. He is desperate to have a legacy but piggybacking off his father’s work and usurping his brother will not give him what he seeks.
I report every YouTube video that’s pro Cambridge that I see.
$1.4m × 5 winners = where the heck is this prize money coming from? Not Wills pocket that is for sure.
Also, that header pic is hilarious. Looks like Wills is communing with the tree in a very “woke” way.
For one, Bezos who largely funded the 2021 awards, just as Bulliam was criticizing billionaires who are pursuing their space adventures.
The irony in that criticism is that William had a big spiel about how “eartshot” was named for “moonshot” because he found the race to the moon so inspirational.
The race to the moon was inspirational.
The race to have a joy ride in space for the average person is stupid.
Why? What was the practical purpose of getting to the moon besides besting other countries? Millions spent and what in return?
Fundraising and redistribution.
This whole thing is less beneficial than a grant. The money gets parsed out slowly and some people were saying your research can be claimed by Earthshot.
Maybe that’s why they are trying to expand numbers who are nominated. Wonder if some haven’t liked the terms and turned it down.
Yep. It’s a PR event, not anything meaningful to folks doing actual work in sustainability.
Having worked closely with a couple of similarly styled competitions (with rewards on a smaller scale), expanding nominations absolutely means they are not satisfied with the caliber of nominees they’re getting. Very possibly, nominations have fallen off a cliff. And if they’re not satisfied and if the noms aren’t coming in the way they should, that means the original pool of candidates whose work they’d like to ‘highlight’ (aka, use to prop up Normal Bill) have had a chance to look under Earthshot’s hood, so to speak, and aren’t interested.
The prize is a grant. Expanding the search for nominees is never considered a bad thing, especially if you are looking to engage innovators in countries that have historically been left out of funding.
The Earthshot alliance is made up of the most important environmental organizations in the world. The idea that the prize is shady disrespects the work of millions of scientists, conservationists, and activists. You can hate William without dragging the people fighting the fight.
Nobody is disrespecting the people doing the actual work on the ground here though…
@Mac: Never say never.
Although a search expansion can be a correction for including overlooked candidates, it is more
often a sign of failure to achieve the goal. It is a red flag of the wrong target field, poorly defined
criteria, badly designed/executed evaluation methods, inaccurate or unrealistic requirements, etc.,
whether it’s for an award, house hunting, fishing, or hiring an employee. You don’t search
further when you find what you need.
There’s nothing wrong with revising the program and making improvements. But given W&K’s
penchant for slapping something together at the last minute, I’m more inclined to believe the
unspoken, real goal was to enhance William’s reputation and the current winners didn’t do
that. Hence the, ahem, wider search. (American ovation)
@Zen: William got rich people like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Bloomberg and Jack Ma and corporations like Goldman Sachs to donate money. All these people and companies like William are only interested in greenwashing.
My reaction to that photo was, “Ewww, imagine that face hovering over you…” 🤢
I bet he stays behind.
@ Zen, he’s doing something with that tree that makes me feel like a freak or voyeur looking at him. He is getting his rocks off on that tree. It must remind him of someone that he loves that he INS’T married to!!
It is just very bizarre to target America for this event. Whats the interest there!? Diplomacy( i am sure the British Govt can handle it) ,tourism!? I am sure Americans dont need convincing if they want to visit UK or not. They should concentrate on commonwealth countries especially Africa ( other than their engagement has Kate been back?).
Exactly they need to shore up their doubtful appeal in the Commonwealth why target the US after their disgraceful treatment of Meghan?
I’m just looking forward to the questions American reporters will shout out at these two!
Kate has come to the US 3 times I think, ever.
Once when she wanted a red carpet event for her honeymoon. It was thrown together just for that reason.
2. When she wore the hot pink coat to the 911 memorial.
And 3rd maybe a year or more ago when she dressed a little better, but people did boo them and no one really cared.
She was said to have taken an internship during her dating years to work with a New York photographer, but it never happened and the whole thing was a rumor to make Kate look ambitious.
@Wiglet watcher ,No i was asking has Kate even been back to Africa since her engagement? It is quite shocking that they have never done an African tour.
After Will’s remarks about Africans would they dare go there?
Believe it or not, but Kate hasn’t been to the United States since 2014. They have been to the US (allegedly Britain’s closest and specialist ally) only twice – 2011 the red carpet event you speak of, and 2014, the pink coat and eye roll while wrapping event.
No, I think just twice, I think there was only the one trip to NYC, and the trip to California.
So she really knows nothing about the US and has shown no interest in the US – which is fine, she’s a “princess of the United Kingdom,” she doesn’t need to be interested in the US….but then dont say you want to be huge in America. We have enough celebrities, thanks.
@Noki – no, William and Kate have never done any type of tour to Africa. Its weird because William has gone there for vacation (to visit Jecca, was that her wedding or her brother’s wedding, when he missed one of the kids, maybe Charlotte’s, first Easter?)
it’s also weird bc other royals have done trips to Africa. Sophie has been to various African countries quite a few times, not recently bc of the pandemic I don’t think, but before the pandemic, and Charles has been a lot (relatively), with and without Camilla. And obviously H&M had that successful tour to South Africa.
But nothing from the Cambridges officially.
Noki
Sorry! I misunderstood.
Beating Harry. That’s what interests him. At the time Earthflop was happening, it was right around when H&M made their trip to NYC, essentially the first “seen” work they’d done in quite a long time. Up until that point, even though H&M had already bagged Netflix, Spotify, etc., they were still mostly secluded from the public due to the pandemic and pregnancy. Seeing them out amongst important players with people clambering to see them was a whole different bag. The trip was clearly impressive and I think that scared the crap out of William. I think that’s why at that time he was all America! America! I must take America! He saw how much America likes his brother and he can’t tolerate that.
Everything @l84tea said. They want to bring it to America to beat harry and meghan. Personally i think that the reception they got from the crowd at the global citizen live event shook them to the core.
You are spot on! Reminds me of the rabbit video from when they were boys. Problem is he has to develop a personality and also get rid of his racist reputation.
@L84tea, I think you’re spot on. There is no other reason for the Cambs to concern themselves with the US. Kaiser has mentioned tourism $$ but the way things are going pandemic-wise, 2022 is not looking up, so I don’t think that’s a very strong justification.
@L84Tea, ITA. It’s William’s hurt ego. He can’t accept that his brother Harry was successful in his NYC debut. So he has to top this by hook or by crook. William is petty and wicked.
Which is why for the life of me I can’t figure out why he isn’t doing this for Britain? Clean up the Thames, or something. He wants to be king of the world doesn’t he?
Maybe they’re looking to recolonize?
Please don’t come here. We have our own celebrities, and useless members of the royal family are low on the totem pole.
Look what happened when Andrew was allowed to visit. Maybe America needs to prevent any “HRH” Brits from entering.
I definitely think they should come to America and try it. I need the laughs.
Lol, imagine the arrogance it takes to say “We didn’t like her because she was (black) American” while planning a trip to the U.S. I also hope they come; what a waste of money and time they are.
It seems they vastly overestimate the interest in themselves here in the states, while simultaneously wildly underestimating H&M’s popularity here.
They should keep their racist asses on Salty Isle.
I wish I could believe there is some impact that this Keenshot endeavor will have, but Willnot (and Kannot) have proven again and again that there is no substance to any of their “initiatives” other than what others have done for which they take credit. I have mixed emotions about their plans to swing through the US this year. On the one hand, I’ll pop some popcorn to see the reception they get from our media (and protesting Squaddies), OTOH, I’m heartily sick of them and just want them to STFD and STFU.
There are a lot of individuals and organizations involved that might pull off some impact with it.
Boy, I hope so. Reading above about the terms of receiving an award, it seems so constricted (parsed remittances, Earthsh!t taking ownership), time will tell if individuals and organizations really see the benefit or impact.
I’m sure the organizations are already having an impact. What is doubtful is whether being involved with Earthshit will enhance what they’re already doing.
Are we done celebrating Kate’s birthday? Is it William’s turn to feel important? I wonder who at KP is doing the actual earthcrop work? So many questions.
Traumatized to read W and K are likely to have a massive week long joint birthday celebrations when Basher hits 40 in June “what for little old us?!” How much longer must we enjoy celebrations for these Muppets with no beginning to their talents?
I thought the platinum jubilee was supposed to happen around that time?
@LaraW So is he going to have his big party and pretend everybody is celebrating his BD instead of the jubilee?
He can’t have a massive bday in June bc that’s the jubilee LOL. Maybe in July.
I bet Kate makes William’s birthday all about her.
Aw, don’t malign the actual Muppets.
Can somebody submit a proposal that the royal family stop using helicopters to go everywhere?
Nobody even knows about last years winners because all of the focus was on William. There has been no date announced or even a city chosen, so I still don’t think it’s happening here. In contrast, the locations for Invictus are announced 2 years in advance after countries bid to host them. We aren’t desperate to host Keenshot. Even his home country didn’t care about it.
Lol, no it will definitely be in the US. That is if covid won’t ruin things for them. But like anything with the keens, its not well thought out and hastily put together. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if they choose New York.
I think they’ll actually choose CA so their minions can write article upon article about how they’re taking over the Sussexes’ turf, H&M are too scared to come meet them because they won’t measure up, people prefer the Cambs even in the Sussexes home state, etc, etc. KKKeen and TOB will really think they’re doing something and somehow sticking it to the Sussexes *eyeroll*. But hopefully H&M will be somewhere else in the country doing something of real value and all the press will be on them and then Will’s egghead can explode.
This is my wish…fingers crossed.
@royalwatcher: hmm could be but I actually also wouldn’t be surprised if they choose Washington DC.
As long as they pay up, I’m sure any city would host them. Still doesn’t mean they will get the reception they’re hoping for.
@royalwatche
In LA or NY they can hire a company to coordinate recruiting people to be in the audience. I used to sign up for shows all the time. I went to multiple American Idol shows and finales. Leno before he retired. Endless Jimmy Kimmel show because his studio was within walking distance. Tons of holiday specials. It was fun.
They can also instruct the audience coordinator to select the type of people they want to appear on camera. They will probably pick a young diverse crowd and tell them how to dress. In between takes, the stage director will instruct them on when to be enthusiastic or be rapt with attention or look adoringly at the Cambridges.
It’s all smoke and mirrors.
PS. Reality shows aren’t real either.
Lol, Snuffles, but in NYC, you can count on a crowd of loud protesters.
@merricat
No doubt. In LA too. I’m just saying if they hire show producers, they can stage manage the fuck out of their awards show.
Well, that’s absolutely true.
Snuffles (and all), you can *hire* people to stock the audience/crowd on Craig’s list; TFG used to do that, paying $25-50 depending on where you were sat, holding a sign, etc. I remember seeing screenshots of the actual ads. And you know, TRF are just like TFG, just with better clothes and social manners (well, to aristos anyway).
But I have to give it to my fellow Angelenos, if McMutton and Bitter Brother show up, we KNOW how to stage a protest, believe me!
Maybe they can host this fakata awards ceremony at Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
@snuffles those recruits aren’t paid though. In NYC it can get pretty cold to be standing around in October. I can’t imagine too many ppl willing to do that for the Cambridge. There just isn’t any interest. Plus, this is a majority minority city. We don’t like racists.
“I can’t wait to see what solutions the Prize helps to champion this coming year.” Talk about making it all about himself. How about: “I can’t wait to see what solutions these ingenious entrepreneurs come up with this coming year to help solve our environmental crisis and protect our collective future.” Prince WIlliam is a deeply troubled, self-absorbed, petty, jealous, unimpactful, meaningless man.
They’ll be able to host it here but I think they’ll be disappointed with the reception. People in the UK barely cared about it, why would people in the US? Maybe if he gets people like Bezos and Gates to show up, that will draw more attention to it, but Bezos may not want to do any favors for William at this point.
someone said when the awards first happened that they are the kind of awards that should be a luncheon daytime awards. Trying to make them into this huge red carpet event is just kind of sad.
If Gates shows up, there will be loads of talk about the two cheating Williams. Gates is on a lot of sh!t lists right now.
I won’t believe it’s happening here in the states until the day he shows up for it. This thing was so hastily announced that I don’t even think his advisors had a plan for it. Billy just told people he wanted to live out his sad American Dream and now they have to figure out how it’s going to happen. Keenshot was a flop in the UK, so I don’t think any American city is going out of its way to host it and pay for it. Because he’s royal, taxpayers are going to have to cough up our dough to put on this silly vanity project and it’s not like he endeared himself to the public by talking sh*t about Bezos and co. Even conservative outlets told him to sit his ass down. This isn’t even the type of event that requires an audience anyway and i don’t anyone who would show up to this. It’s not Ellen, American Idol, or the MTV awards. Where is the hell is the audience going to come from?
Nota, Gates is also on Epstein’s plane’s manifesto, and that WILL be brought up in light of everything as well.
William and kate have kind of missed the beat with their desire to be the most interesting, most loved royal couple. If this psychotic pr was done right after their marriage, and if they didn’t hide away for so long but were actually seen on the ground working, then all this fluff wouldn’t have been necessary
When she looks at him, I see a woman saying I am doing it all for the Crown Jewels.
Who won it in 2020? I don’t remember hearing anything about any of the winners or the winning projects.
Exactly. The winners are overshadowed and no one knows what their projects are. That’s not how awards are supposed to work. The keens should come to the US and find out how little people like vanity projects. They suck.
Do the projects really matter when we got to see that snazzy velvet jacket on his highness?
Yes. Come to America, William. If you think American media will blow smoke up your ass and tell you how great you think you are, you’re in for a rude awakening. You can’t control our media like you control the UK’s.
And I can’t wait for you to meet our paparazzi. Your paps are puppies compared to ours. They will relish poking the bear and will mention Harry and Meghan at every opportunity just to get a reaction from you.
So, please, roll up into our hood like you own the place. We will give you a good old fashioned American welcome. Just like 1776.
@snuffles I think they do and can control American media. They control US networks through access and press credentialing for their London bureaus.
@kaydee
There was a time where access to the Cambridges held some cache. Those days are over. America has the super stars on their turf now. They will be fighting for access to the Sussex’s from now on.
Also, the US’s media landscape is HUGE and diverse. They may be able to get a few outlets to play ball, but there will be even more outlets that will agitate them for clicks and ratings.
Snuffles, I love you! lolol Come sit by me (pats sofa, and offers coffee).
What a great response!
🥰🥰🥰🥰 Thanks 😊
Oh, damn, Snuffles, now you’ve got me wanting them to come here, if only to see them receive the kind of reception your words so glowingly paint!
We need a Twitter campaign to let the US media know we’re watching and want to see real interviews or none at all. Enough with protecting royals.
I agree, Earthshot = Early Years. Just like with the concert, we heard little to nothing about the winners and their projects and only saw photos of William and Kate at the award show.
Does anyone know who the winners are and what they did to win those ” awards “?
Nope. You would think the British press would go out of its way to highlight the winners. Did they?
“After eleven years of their petty, parochial little reindeer games in the UK, they think they can waltz over to America and be instantly beloved.”
Maybe they can. Lololololol. Sorry, I’m just kidding and cracking myself up here. He’s trying so hard to be his younger brother it’s hilarious.
I’m waiting for another mental health nugget for Apple to follow his walk about bullsh*t. Maybe this time he’ll do yoga…Namaste.
What a strange conundrum they find themselves in (don’t get me wrong, this is of their making)! On the one hand, they court “woke” people heavily concerned about the environment and the climate emergency and on the other hand they can only appeal to extreme right-wing, Trumpian, “anti-woke”, climate-change deniers!! 🤔 🤦♀️
They need to just stay home and work on their piano playing for the next prerecorded recital. So not interested in any of this couples self promotions they have plenty of commonwealth countries to choose from they need to focus on them.
Earthshot is never going to be Invictus no matter how hard it is pushed on the world.. I feel if he continues the American campaign it will be the last year and an epic fail. He should have stayed to his country and close commonwealth wealth countries to grow a following, instead of this petty push for popularity.
William is going to get tired of Earthshot within three or four years. Count on it. Except for obsessing about Harry, I think he’s already getting bored with it. The big draw for William after trying to compete with Harry will be whatever country they go to next. Probably Australia for year three. Maybe South Africa for year four.
I think he’s tired of it now.
I think Will wanted some hot babe women scientists as winners so he could take pics and “stay in touch” with them but since that didn’t happen he’s bored already.
Considering this is a vanity project out of spite for his brother and maybe even his father, three or fours feel generous. A part of me wants him to try bringing this to the states only to bomb even worse than last year. Earthshot would be dead by 2023 and we won’t hear another peep about it from Kensington Palace.
The Cambs won’t come to the US if the judge in Guiffre v. York rules the civil trial goes forward. That and the Sussexes are subjects they want to avoid.
He did!!
Did anyone notice that in the 🍎 program that will did he was breathing hard from just walking? And where’s Will’s bulging arms that was Photoshopped when he got the vaccine shot?
Another project he’s going to abandon.
I fully expect the Cambridges to arrive in NYC via private jet and helicopter, because that’s how dedicated they are to the environment.
“to help scale their projects”; “ensuring that we spotlight and scale the very best ideas”. I don’t know what it means ‘to scale’ a project or ‘scale’ an idea. Can someone explain that to me? Is it a business term, ‘to scale’? Or is it a word used/misused to make something sound more lofty than it really is, like the current overuse/misuse of ‘curate’.
In business it means to grow the business in a workable way. So for example you don’t just grow your sales numbers, you “scale” the overall operation to support that growth. It’s not just puffery.
It’s indeed unusual to phrase it like that imo. Odd.
I’ve been puzzling over this. Earthshot seems like a dud, no one knows anything about the prize winners & yet there’s a lot of money involved. The thing that most intrigues me when it comes to the BRF is the thing they don’t like to talk about–money.
We know William isn’t spending his own funds on the prizes/grants, but they’ve managed to get lots of outside partners on board. And then they bring in vetted innovators to whom they award grants. Sounds a lot like Pitch@Palace, from which we later learned Andrew was (likely illegally, definitely unethically) siphoning cash. Earthshot is under the umbrella of the Royal Foundation, whose finances are shady. Also, I checked their website. You can’t apply for the prize–you have to be selected by a handpicked group of nominators (what is their stake in all of this?). Hmm.
This feels like a scam that also feeds William’s ego (win win for KP, I guess).
Right, they want the best ideas, that happen to be known to, and approved by, their in-group of nominators.
In other words, it’s a gang of cronies sitting around telling each other how smart they are.
You know what happens when a big fish from a little pond swims out into a big pond? He looks like a little fish.
I think he should shove that Earthshit price up his *** where it originally came from🤌🏿
Can I just say that picture of Baldy with his eyes closed activates my vomit reflex? 🤢🤢🤮 Gives me the shivers up my back and not in a good way.
I want to ask the tree if it consented.
Kaiser, you have a genius for picking out the perfect picture to head an article on William. It’s like a character portrait (unlike Kate’s ridiculous portraits). I see so much in his expression– arrogance, ennui, grievances, withering disdain, his own perfection, etc. THAT is how to take and choose a photo. The Italian, no matter how good in his own domain, was a paid hack for Kate to twiddle away the money of her government on the, what, HUNDREDS of photos he took for her? I’d like to see his bill. It must be big, big money to throw away his reputation-making art ethos.
I have a groundbreaking idea: stop using helicopters! Where can I claim my innovation award?
I saw Dr Evil from Austin Powers more than a Bond villain 🤣
But….America has the beloved couple.
They live in Cali.
When I watched video of William and Kate walking into the Earthshot ceremony, they stopped and turned around for the photographers. I’m not a lip reader, but it looked like William said “pretend”, I watched it a few times and to me, it looked like “pretend”. I’m not sure if William meant pretend we’re a happy couple or maybe he meant pretend we’re happy to be here for the photographers. But it was this event because I remember not liking what they wore. And I watched that arrival a few times to try to see what William said when they turned for pics.
Ann, I will watch it. It is notoriously hard to read lips. Even people who try to only get about 30% of what the person is saying (I say this as a teacher who has learned this). The word “pretend” is a great one for this couple because there is so much they are pretending . . . or lying about.
Ann, I will watch it. It is notoriously hard to read lips. Even people who learn to read lips only get about 30% of what the person is saying (I say this as a teacher who has learned this). The word “pretend” is a great one for this couple because there is so much they are pretending . . . or lying about.
Earth Shot missed the mark. Where is the write-up of the winners and the progress of the projects? I don’t recall seeing photographs or reading excerpts from the recipients. William is not project-oriented; he is a professional piggyback rider. William delegated Earth Shot to Jason Knauf, and Jason couldn’t pull it off because he was too busy trying to destroy Meghan. The fact that the US Climate Ambassador, former Senator John Kerry, hasn’t tooted the Earth Shot horn tells me he wasn’t overly impressed. Kensington Palace presented another smoke and mirror project.
W&K needs to focus on the Commonwealth nations. 2022 is the midterm elections in the US; royals who don’t vote should be of little interest during this time.
William referred to Meghan as “that bloody American,” Exactly what my protest sign will read, I’m not sure yet. Suppose they come near NYC or Washington DC. In that case, I’ll be there to let them know their treatment of an American citizen, in my opinion, was despicable. I’m sure they can count on Trumpism to welcome them and possibly receive an invitation to Mar-a-Largo. Besides, research shows that some of the significant Meghan troll accounts are American women.