Prince William will speak about environmentalism at a virtual TED Talk

Prince William makes an official visit to Cave Hill Country Park

Hey, does anyone else remember the Earthshot Prize? Prince William announced it just after Christmas – it’s supposed to be a “prize” money grant to people who come up with big solutions for environmental issues. The PR fluff around the announcement of Earthshot was that it would be the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for environmentalism. The thing is… William hasn’t done a damn thing with it since the announcement? This is what happens now with both the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. They make lofty announcements and introduce shiny new “initiatives” and then nothing happens. Whatever happened to the Five Big Questions? The same thing that happened to Earthshot, apparently.

I bring up the lack of *anything* around the Earthshot Prize to remind people that Prince William fancies himself something of an environmentalist now. It’s very superficial, and if I was Prince Charles, I would be so annoyed. Charles has legitimately been a pioneer on so many environmental issues, and now he gets to see his half-witted son waltz into the conversation, declare that he’s bored with it, then paint himself as a rose-loving environmentalist. Case in point: William is the one speaking at a virtual TED Talk devoted to the environment.

Prince Charles has been campaigning for environmental causes for the better part of his adult life, and now Prince William is following in his father’s footsteps. On October 10, the Duke of Cambridge will be speaking at the first-ever free TED conference, an event called Countdown, which will be open to the public and entirely dedicated to a conversation about climate change.

“The earth is at a tipping point and we face a stark choice: either we continue as we are and irreparably damage our planet or we remember our unique power as human beings and our continual ability to lead, innovate and problem-solve,” Prince William said last December. “People can achieve great things. The next ten years present us with one of our greatest tests—a decade of action to repair the Earth.”

In addition to Prince William, other notable participants include Al Gore, Jaden Smith, Chris Hemsworth, Yemi Alade, Don Cheadle, and Mark Ruffalo, among others. The digital conference will be streamed on TED as well as YouTube.

[From Town & Country]

What is William’s expertise again? He is, at best, a jack of all trades, just another posh lad with no speciality, simply bluffing his way through detailed and nuanced conversations like this. At worst, he’s a poseur and he’s only doing this to fluff up his meager “king-to-be” CV. I would love to hear what Prince Charles would say in this kind of forum. But I guess William was the one they wanted. Man, are they going to be disappointed. I bet he doesn’t even read the speech his people prepare for him.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit Shire Hall Care Home

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

44 Responses to “Prince William will speak about environmentalism at a virtual TED Talk”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. OriginalLala says:

    These kinds of things that should be headlined by actual experts on the subject, not dilettante celebrities, especially uber-rich celebrities who use up tons of our resources for their un-necessarily extravagant lifestyles. We put way too much stock into listening to celebs who usually have nothing to offer.

    *I’m clearly a grump this morning haha*

    • Seraphina says:

      OrginalLala, no you are not a grump. I whole heartedly agree with you. It’s like watching a press conference when the press asks medical questions on COVID and POTUS answers when medical experts (doctors) are behind him. No, let the experts take over.

      • Shirley Gail says:

        In BC, Canada this is exactly how our premier handled things; he took a step back and let our Chief Doc handle the pandemic and thus, lots and lots of kudos for John Horgan.

    • whateveryousay says:

      No I am with you. Especially Hemsworth who is being criticized (rightly) for that monstrous compound he is building.

    • sunny says:

      I think you need celebrities and experts. Experts bring knowledge but celebrities bring attention and eyeballs and building public awareness has always been and probably will always be part of movement building.

    • Vava says:

      Let me join you on the couch. I’m a grump this morning too. My attitude is impacted by Trump’s recent visit to California and his ridiculous behavior regarding all these wild fires. Add to the mix this asshole Roger Stone and Caputo. Bill Cambridge is an entitled twit and I can’t stand him or any of the Windsors (except Harry and Meghan). I think I need to take a break from the news and social media, it’s affecting my usual upbeat attitude about life. Doesn’t help that there is an out-of-control wildfire just east of town and I can’t breathe fresh air or see a blue sky. UGH

      • Noodle says:

        @vava, We’ve been living in the smoky air for a week here in SoCal, and it’s awful. I hope the fire near your town is quickly contained. It’s been an awful fire season so far.

      • Shirley Gail says:

        We’re in BC, Canada and we have some of the worst, if not THE worst air quality in the WORLD right now, because of the fires in Oregon. I’m working outside today, and am going to be wearing my masks, because I need the filter from the smoke particles as well as protection for all from my potentially infecting them (I’m not sick, but even then, who knows who is a carrier or not?)!!!!

    • Nic919 says:

      I don’t want to hear a whole speech from a man who uses more resources and damages the environment with his own actions far more than I ever could. Is he giving up his chopper ? Until then he needs to shut up. Harry got ripped for taken a private jet lent to him by Elton John and yet nothing is being done on the hypocrisy of having William speak on this.
      There is nothing William can say on this issue that has any worth.

  2. Travelin says:

    Other “notable” people include Jaden Smith?! I lost it right there.

  3. Dropbear says:

    That’s very rich coming from the ‘PWT the Statesman formally known as Flybe Stuntman’. He needs to either walk the talk or stop pontificating to the plebs about environmentalism or anything else other than rose bush gardening.
    If the TED talk gets livestreamed, it’ll be fun to watch PWT put his foot in his mouth with his environmentalism ‘expertise’

    • Dierski says:

      Love the shade in continuing all of the rose bush commentary in Every. William. Article.

      We all see William “waltz into the conversation, declare that he’s bored with it, then paint himself as a rose-loving environmentalist.” @Kaiser… its too good! 😂

  4. Maevo says:

    William clearly has no real interests and just tries to latch on to things to seem busy.

    Where are the results of the Five Big Questions??? It’s bonkers there was such a big fanfare about that and now it’s totally disappeared. Does it really take 7 months to compile the results of a 5 question survey??

  5. tee says:

    well this means he can never take a private jet (or helicopter) again! wouldn’t want to be seen preaching, but not following by example.

    if he really wants to build clout in this area, he should consider establishing a niche in the environmental sphere. for example, i think it was smart of harry to hone in on the environmental impacts of tourism through travalyst. people are more inclined to listen when you’re seeking to problem solve rather than posture.

    • sunny says:

      I mean given things like security concerns, I think it wouldn’t be antithetical to travel as long as he was doing things like offsetting.

      What surprise me is has William ever shown an interest in this area? I mean, I know there was something about a conservation course he took years ago but Charles is the one who has been active in this area for decades.

      • Becks1 says:

        @tee is being snarky because of all the criticism for Harry and Meghan using private jets while “preaching” about the environment. Those critics all ignored how often William and Kate use helicopters and private planes.

        William has shown a vague interest in this area but its like all his other interests – vague. He just talks about the environment and climate change in generalities.

      • mytwocents says:

        Becks1, it drove me crazy watching the news when Harry and Meghan got so attacked about using private jets and the rest of the family just sat back and watched it happen! Will, Kate, Charles, Andrew, all of them were and are using private jets. The double standards are so frustrating.

      • Kalana says:

        They didn’t just sit back and watch it happen. Will and Kate actively encouraged it with the help of their aide Simon Case. They cancelled their private plane and got last minute seats on a cheap airline and released photos of the whole stunt.

      • Thirtynine says:

        Replying to Kalana, I think you are right to notice Simon Case’s influence. I think this whole Earthshot Prize might have come from S i mon Case as something for William to do. It’s very much out of the current UK governments handbook. Announce grandiose ‘world-beating’ scheme involving enormous amounts of money, without full details of how it is to work, by people with no credentials, with full fanfare of publicity. Then have nothing to show for it, but there is now a ‘reason’ for said vast amounts of money being moved around. Even the name ‘Earthshot’ sounds like the latest ‘Moonshot’ scheme of Johnson and Cummings. Makes me think very hard about what might be in William’s future.

  6. atorontogal says:

    What a useless bunch of twats the RF are. Seriously, why would a country continue to support these people?

  7. Anna says:

    His role is not to be an expert. His role is to bring awarness by being involved. That is exactly what royals, celebs acting as ambasadors for any cause do. I see no point for criticism here

    • Kalana says:

      I am more aware of his giant homes and his private plane and helicopter use. William is a massive hypocrite who doesn’t care about the environment (unless he wants to go on safari). It’s a joke that he’s there.

    • Nic919 says:

      Just as it was fair to criticize Harry for the private jet, it is fair to criticize William for preaching to us about the environment when he wastes more than we will ever. How come the “they all do it” and “let’s not criticize him” comments always come out when it’s William who is the outright hypocrite?

    • notasugarhere says:

      He only ‘cares’ about conservation because of his relationship with Jecca Craig and because it gets him PR. And as Bev writes below, he lectures others about how many children *they* should have when he has three.

      Not all royals are as useless as W&K; others are not mere figureheads. Haakon of Norway, Fred of Denmark, Victoria of Sweden. Those three have been working together consistently on environmental issues in Scandinavia for almost two decades.

    • Jaded says:

      His role is to actually do some meaningful research on whatever topic he’s speaking on, not just bumble his way through a brief ad hoc speech with a fake “concerned” look on his face. He has never done anything close to serious research and, in fact, has put his foot in his mouth more times than not. Then he races back to Anmer and does nothing. He failed at his “bespoke” ecologically sustainable farming courses, he faffed around on a helicopter for a while, he shows up for an occasional Zoom call. *Crickets*. Until he decides to actually dig into some meaningful work, he is nothing more than a useless talking head.

    • Sid says:

      If William himself is giving a solo speech at the Ted talk as per the usual format, then yes he should have some sort of expertise in the area or at least have a background that shows commitment to the topic. He doesn’t. If Charles were doing the talk, it would make perfect sense considering his practical experience in the area and the fact that he has been on the environmentalism track going all the way back to the early days of the movement. William does not have that background, and in fact has so far shown only a superficial interest in the topic.

    • Lizzie says:

      In the case of a TED talk the presenter should have some background, history or expertise in the subject. Think of why people listen to one, not to ‘bring awareness’ but to learn.

      Sorry Sid, I didn’t see your post and said the same thing only not as well.

    • Lizzie says:

      Then William should stick to cutting ribbons and keep bringing awareness.

  8. Amy Bee says:

    Well, this is William’s attempt to burnish those “statesman” bonafides. I also think he’s still competing with Harry and Meghan.

  9. Char says:

    HE HUNTS FOR FUN! How can this man speak about environmentalism when he is the face of privilege?

    • Nic919 says:

      Maybe he will start his speech with “as I was killing a bunch of grouse for no reason except mindless tradition, I started having a few thoughts about the environment…. “

  10. Sofia says:

    Meh. I don’t care much for what William has to say about environmentalism but some people do (if only because he’s the future future King) so someone will like it. And if he manages to say something useful then good.

    • Bev says:

      Yeah, Bill’s form of environmentalism is the kind where you take a private jet to a place and tell Africans to stop having kids WHILE your wife is pregnant for your third child with her. I wouldn’t hold my breath for anything good coming out of that moth.

  11. RoyalBlue says:

    ugh. i hope someone calls him out on the FlyBe stunt he pulled. his geography degree is getting dusted out for this one.

  12. A says:

    Oh good. Let’s hear another lecture through Zoom on how the poors are wrecking the planet, from an heir to one of the richest royal families around, in a year when we’re all feeling the effects of climate change more severely than ever before.

    No holding the politicians and CEOs who peddled climate denialism for decades accountable, of course, because our lad William wouldn’t want to be too harsh on his Tory friends and staffers. No, instead, it’s the people who always suffer the most from climate change who need to be reminded that it’s all our fault.

  13. Mariane says:

    I pray that this is live(highly unlikely) but even if it isnt he’ll be out of touch as always. I checked the TED account and it’s clear that this was a last minute arrangement. He’s lucky that his loyal dogs wont call him ‘woke’ or hypocrite for preaching about the environment whilst having a diesel car+personal helicopter.

  14. Itsme says:

    Well, one nice thing, he has lovely manicured hands that haven’t seen a days hard work in his life. That’s all I got.

  15. Heat says:

    Honestly, anything that was announced in early 2020 is kind of dead in the water. I’d grant a pass on this one.
    It’s too bad because, in theory, this sounds like quite a good initiative.