The price of capitalism and consumerism is just too high, he tells industrialists
Robert Verkaik, The Independent 8 Jul 09;
Capitalism and consumerism have brought the world to the brink of economic and environmental collapse, the Prince of Wales has warned in a grandstand speech which set out his concerns for the future of the planet.
The heir to the throne told an audience of industrialists and environmentalists at St James's Palace last night that he had calculated that we have just 96 months left to save the world.
And in a searing indictment on capitalist society, Charles said we can no longer afford consumerism and that the "age of convenience" was over.
The Prince, who has spoken passionately about the environment before, said that if the world failed to heed his warnings then we all faced the "nightmare that for so many of us now looms on the horizon".
Charles's speech was described as his first attempt to present a coherent philosophy in which he placed the threat to the environment in the context of a failing economic system.
The Prince, who is advised by the leading environmentalists Jonathon Porritt and Tony Juniper, said that even the economist Adam Smith, father of modern capitalism, had been aware of the short-comings of unfettered materialism.
Delivering the annual Richard Dimbleby lecture, Charles said that without "coherent financial incentives and disincentives" we have just 96 months to avert "irretrievable climate and ecosystem collapse, and all that goes with it."
Charles has recently courted controversy by intervening in planning disputes, most notably the battle over the Chelsea Barracks design in London. It is also known that he writes privately to ministers when he wishes to put his concerns on record.
Now, he seems more willing to embrace much wider political issues in a much more public forum.
He confided last night: "We face the dual challenges of a world view and an economic system that seem to have enormous shortcomings, together with an environmental crisis – including that of climate change – which threatens to engulf us all."
Despite his attack on the materialism of the modern age, the Prince has been criticised for his own indulgences, including dozens of staff to run his homes and hundreds of thousands of pounds spent travelling around the world. While his private estates on the Duchy of Cornwall generate record profits his tax bill was lower than the year before.
Last night the Prince said: "But for all its achievements, our consumerist society comes at an enormous cost to the Earth and we must face up to the fact that the Earth cannot afford to support it. Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts – and paradoxically also facing calls for a return to so-called 'old-fashioned', traditional banking – so Nature's life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too.
"If we don't face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust. And no amount of quantitative easing will revive it."
Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust, warns Prince Charles
The Prince of Wales has said that "Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust" in an apocalyptic warning that the Earth is on the brink of environmental disaster.
Urmee Khan, The Telegraph 8 Jul 09;
Delivering this year's Richard Dimbleby Lecture, the Prince said that the next generation will face a "living hell" unless governments urgently tackle climate change and stop plundering the Earth's natural resources.
"In failing the Earth, we are failing Humanity," the Prince said, drawing parallels with the global financial crisis. "Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts... so Nature's life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too. If we don't face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust. And no amount of quantitative easing will revive it."
He highlighted that the dual challenge of an economic system with "enormous shortcomings, together with an environmental crisis of climate change" threatened to "engulf us all".
He said: "We need urgently to look deeply into ourselves and at the way we perceive the world and our relationship with it? If only because, surely, we all want to bequeath to our children and our grandchildren something other than the living hell of the nightmare that for so many of us now looms on the horizon."
The Prince re-emphasises the urgent need for action – there are "96 months left" before it may be too late to reverse the impact of climate change.
In an earlier speech in March, the Prince said that nations had "less than 100 months to act" to save the planet from irreversible damage due to climate change.
Last night, he called for a new Age of Sustainability rather than our current "Age of Convenience" where the goal of unlimited economic growth is depleting finite Natural resources to dangerously low levels.
He said mankind needed to reassess the relationship with the natural world and recognise that "we are not separate from Nature – like everything else, we are Nature."
He called for greater "financial incentives and disincentives" to move innovative business ideas from the economic fringes to the mainstream.
In addition to greater corporate social and environmental responsibility, the Prince urged the Government to make greater use of "community capital - the networks of people and organisations, the post offices and pubs, the churches and village halls, the mosques, temples and bazaars".
One solution "lies in the way we plan, design and build our settlements", said the Prince. "I have talked long and hard about this for what seems rather a long time – but it is yet another case where a rediscovery of so-called "old-fashioned", traditional virtues can lead to the development of sustainable urbanism."
The Prince of Wales delivered BBC One's annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture at St James Palace in front of a live audience. It is 20 years after his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, gave his own Dimbleby Lecture. The annual address is named after the late broadcaster, whom the Prince said "he combined a flair for language with great human insight to report on some of the most significant moments of the twentieth century – not least when he guided millions of viewers on the day television came of age, with the BBC's coverage of my mother's Coronation in 1953."
It is understood the Prince was invited to give the lecture by Mr Dimbleby's 64-year-old son Jonathan, who wrote a biography of the Prince in 1994.
Other previous Richard Dimbleby lecturers include Bill Clinton, General Sir Mike Jackson, Dame Stella Rimington and Dr Rowan Williams.
Nature can't take unrestrained growth: Prince Charles
Peter Griffiths, Reuters 8 Jul 09;
LONDON (Reuters) - The quest for unlimited economic growth is unsustainable and could bankrupt the environment through climate change and depleted natural resources, Britain's Prince Charles said on Wednesday.
Charles, next-in-line to succeed Queen Elizabeth, said a new economic model must be found because the Earth can no longer support the demands of a growing "consumerist society" where growth is an end in itself.
People must realize they are not "the masters of creation," rather just one part of a fragile natural world, he added.
"Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts... so Nature's life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too," Charles said at a BBC lecture at St James's Palace in central London.
"If we don't face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust.
"That is the challenge we face, it seems to me -- to see Nature's capital and her processes as the very basis of a new form of economics."
Charles, the former husband of the late Princess Diana, has long campaigned on the environment.
His own farm went organic in the 1980s, he publishes details of his estate's annual carbon emissions and has developed a sustainable village in western England called Poundbury.
"Our ability to adapt to the effects of climate change...depends on us adapting our pursuit of unlimited economic growth to that of sustainable growth," he said.
While conceding that industrialization had brought benefits such as better education, prosperity and higher life expectancy, the future king said that progress had come at a price.
Consumption has grown so much in the last 30 years that demands on natural resources now exceed the planet's capacity for renewal by a quarter each year, he added.
By 2050, the world's population will swell to about 9 billion people, from the current 3.3 billion, and a higher proportion will expect Western levels of consumption.
Modern farming methods that use fertilizers and pesticides that have helped feed a growing population have taken a "huge and unsustainable" toll on ecosystems, he added.
"Our current model of progress was not designed of course to create all this destruction," Charles said. "However, given the overwhelming evidence from so many quarters, we have to ask ourselves if it any longer makes sense or whether it is actually fit for purpose."
Economic growth has failed to end poverty, stress, ill health and social tensions, he added. A reformed economy must give more weight to the environment and local communities.
(Editing by Matthew Jones)
Prince Charles warns of evironmental doom
Yahoo News 8 Jul 09;
LONDON (AFP) – Prince Charles warned Wednesday of environmental catastrophe, saying the world must "urgently confront" pressing green issues to avoid destroying "our children's future."
Charles, the heir to the throne, warned that today's consumer society comes at an enormous cost to the planet and we must "face up to the fact" that it was no longer sustainable.
He also said that preserving and maintaining the world's ecosystems was inextricably linked to the economic well-being of nations.
The prince, who has campaigned on safeguarding the rainforests and is known for his strong environmental views, set out his vision for tackling the threats facing the planet in a major speech at St James's Palace in London.
Charles said we were "at an historic moment -- because we face a future where there is a real prospect that if we fail the Earth, we fail humanity."
"To avoid such an outcome, which will comprehensively destroy our children's future, we must urgently confront and then make choices which carry monumental implications," he said.
"We are standing at a moment of substantial transition where we face the dual challenges of a world view and an economic system that seem to have enormous shortcomings, together with an environmental crisis -- including that of climate change -- which threatens to engulf us all."
Charles described the effect mankind was having on the planet, from causing the thinning of the Arctic sea ice to threatening the world's rainforests, which have reduced by a third since the 1950s.
Delivering the annual Richard Dimbleby lecture in honour of the veteran broadcaster, Charles said it appeared that, if the world continued on its present path, it would lead to a "depleted and divided planet".
"But for all its achievements, our consumerist society comes at an enormous cost to the Earth and we must face up to the fact that the Earth cannot afford to support it," he said.
"Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts -- and paradoxically also facing calls for a return to so-called 'old-fashioned' traditional thinking -- so nature's life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too."
