It will be interesting to see how much attention Prince Harry gets during the solo part of the Sussexes’ African tour. Yesterday, after introducing baby Archie to Archibishop Desmond Tutu, Harry left Meghan and Archie in South Africa and he flew off to Botswana. His solo part of the tour will focus a lot on conservation and environmentalism. Which means… he probably will get attention, because the British papers can continue to bring up PRIVATE JETS and Harry’s desire to only have two kids, which to British journalists constitutes “Harry’s repeated environmental lectures!” While in Botswana today, Harry spoke about the environment as he planted a tree. He praised Greta Thunberg and more. Some quotes:
On concrete jungles: “What we are seeing here in Africa is what we are seeing all around the world – more and more people are being brought up in concrete jungles, in cities inevitably disconnected with nature.”
On Greta Thunberg: “The world’s children are striking. It’s a race against time and one that we are losing, everyone knows it.” And he added “everyone knows” about the current climate issues, saying: “No one can deny science, otherwise we live in a very troubling world.”
On Botswana: Speaking at the Chobe Forest Tree reserve today, the 35-year-old said: “Fifteen years I’ve been coming here, it’s a sense of escapism, a real sense of purpose. I have some of my closest friends here and I came here in 1997 or 1998 straight after my mum died, so it was a nice place to get away from it all. But now I feel deeply connected to this place and to Africa.”
“More and more people are being brought up in concrete jungles, in cities inevitably disconnected with nature…” Yeah but… city-dwelling is actually better for the environment. Ideally, humans should be living in more concentrated areas (“cities”) with dedicated spaces for parks, trees and nature. The cities are not the problem – suburbs are the problem, and the overdevelopment of land to accommodate people who “want some green” and then travel by SUV one hour every day to get to their jobs. I understand the point Harry is making about being “disconnected from nature” though – while every city should have park space (and many do), it’s about kids having access to nature, having access to greenery and fresh food, because there are too many food deserts in city spaces. Still, it’s a more nuanced conversation than “concrete jungles are bad.”
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Good for Harry even though I know certain people don’t want him talking about this subject. Some of the comments I’ve seen about Greta are so disgusting and horrifying. It’s one thing to not believe in climate change, but abusing those who do believe is just evil.
You may want to listen to this! Looks into the various studies into city living and why it isn’t great. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/12/750538458/you-2-0-our-better-nature
We need to live less wasteful lives that use up fewer resources – travel by plane less, take public transit (or bike more), buy fewer new clothes, fewer new things, eat less meat, eat more local.
It’s something hubby and I have taken on pretty seriously the past few years and it’s not easy. Our consumer society makes it difficult to live this way, but we all need to at least try. It would be something if Harry, who seems passionate about this, talked about how he is implementing changes in his life to counter the climate crisis. I think it would be powerful to hear him say things like, I will limit my air travel, commit to XYZ, etc etc.
I have also been struggling with this lately. One change we have implemented is thinking of recycling as a last resort and not an “undoing” of what we bought. I am trying to just consume less in the first place, which has meant buying far fewer things, including food. But we’ve been better about using everything up or never getting it in the first place.
I live in an older brick house from the 1970s. I have been wondering lately about custom homes, like Ryan Homes, that can be built to be more eco-friendly, but isn’t the building process disruptive? Is it more eco-friendly to just inhabit the buildings we already have than cropping up new ones?
I also use diapers on my daughter. 🙁 The carbon liner/cloth diapers use an adapter hose and so much water that it seemed wasteful. However I am working on potty-training her ASAP so we can stop using diapers. I feel overwhelmed with everything we could be doing, but not sure what choices to make.
You’re so right. The sprawl is what is killing nature. Levelling forests and wood lots to create subdivisions and shopping areas, etc.
My small part of the world is fighting a housing crisis, along with laws that do not allow any building larger than 5 stories. I see so much clear-cutting to expand out further and further into the suburbs and ‘commuter towns’ and it makes me so angry.
It’s good that he backed up Greta Thunberg. It’s an example of using male privilege in a positive way. When a woman or girl says that something is a problem- whether in the form of a march, a speech, or sharing a toxic experience – she’s at a higher risk of being dismissed, demonized, or characterized in disgusting ways like we’ve already seen people doing with Greta, and COUNTLESS others. A male voice, especially from his age range or higher, to many people can have a legitimizing effect, in a way that female voices won’t, and show that something is an actual issue rather than just the product of a hysterical or sinister, greedy mind. Great use of his platform.
I don’t think he was trying to say that cities in and of themselves are bad for the environment but rather there’s a disconnect from nature in them. Things are easily accessible, plastic is a go to, and you aren’t seeing the damage to the planet in cities as you do when you go to a more rural area. Cities are wonderful and can benefit the environmental crisis but the smog they create is also a substantial issue.
Regardless, I don’t think Harry was blaming cities for climate change.
Agree, as more people live in cities, we don’t see the impact to the environment. So in can be easy to ignore what’s happening. Or pretend it’s not happening at all.
Right. I moved out of the city into the country over 25 years ago. There’s no one who lives in nature who hasn’t noticed how few butterflies there are now, how there are less bees, how our water comes down from snow melt on the mountain into creeks into rivers. And what happens when there isn’t snow or rain. You become VERY aware of water when you don’t live in the city.
I think the ideal is for small towns to bring back walkable local groceries and farm stands so that people don’t have to drive to get food. Also, gardens. More gardens everywhere! It made me so happy when I could grow my own food and provide flowers for the bees.
I agree that on a carbon consumption level living at scale in a city is ideal, but from a “biophilia” (real term, the mind-body measurable benefits of connection to nature) standpoint or simply having enough connection to nature to continue to protect it, those things are sacrificed. We could do better to integrate access to nature in cities.
Also, look into Extinction Rebellion, everyone. They have an initiative to get people to stop buying new clothes because frankly there are enough already floating around and the environmental impact of clothing and textile production far outweighs many others we touch with daily consumption. Also join a local CSA or co-op for grocery shopping.
We’ve had CSA subscriptions to a local organic farm going on three years now – fresh local produce, no plastic & our grocery bill has actually gone down! also supporting a small scale farmer and our local economy. I’m a huge fan
I love you, Harry! Support a righteous child and not a corrupt dictator.
I wonder how much sunscreen he wears cause he looks like he burns very easily.