Monday, June 30, 2008

Prince Charles reduces greenhouse gases, William won't

It's so good to hear that HRH Prince Charles cut his personal emissions of greenhouse gases last year by about 2800 tonnes. What's the reason for this? His fleet of Jaguars, an Audi and a Ranger rover now run on biodiesel and his Aston Martin on bioethanol made from surplus wine; among other energy conserving measures.

Oh, and along the way, the Prince of Wales' income from the Duchy of Cornwall (which during his administration over his personal fiefdom has become a mass demonstration project in sustainable development and responsible architecture) was about £16 million, proving it pays to be efficient. Maybe his marriage to Diana gave him some kind of a conscience after all.

Too bad HRH Prince William can't see fit to follow his father's example, such as spending £8700 to fly to a stag party on the Isle of Wight, or a military jet to shuttle his squeeze Kate Middleton around the UK. Wonder how much of the 2800 tonnes the earth was spared by Chuckles was offset by Wee Willie.

Surely he could have rented a hybrid or otherwise bio-friendly vehicle. Oh wait, he's the heir presumptive and that's beneath him.

I'd like to see the Monarchist League defend this kind of reckless spending. Or at least Her Majesty cut back William's share of the Civil List to pay back the British taxpayer for what he wasted.

Oh, the other interesting thing: Charles has said he wants to reduce his footprint by 25% by 2012, and by the numbers is well on the way there. PMS can barely get around the idea of reducing intensity by 20% by 2050 -- while during that time our footprint will increase by at least half again if not more. Food for thought.

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1 comment:

Red Tory said...

I'm sure most monarchists would be completely untroubled by anything Prince William does (or doesn't do). He could be off shooting people in the woods for sport and I'm sure Dr. Roy would be enthusiastically saluting the the efforts of the royal prince to rid the countryside of homeless people.