William, Prince of Wales

[Hujambo]

Sept 21, 2023 19:48:45 GMT -4 @fitz said:

Sept 21, 2023 18:42:16 GMT -4 cancan said:

It's really no different from Invictus taking place in a different country every year, is it?

Invictus isn’t claiming to be in the environment realm of things it’s not saying its aim is to help the climate situation tho, which Earthshot is, an environmental prize. They are not in the same ball park at all the only thing there is in common is that his brother is involved

Not really. COP, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (the closest thing I can find in relation to Earthshot Prize - the guest list has a lot of overlap) is held in a different host city/country every year. COP 26 was held in Glasgow. COP 27 was held in Egypt. And COP 28 is being held in the UAE. The same goes for a CHOGM. It’s held in a different city/country each time. If we want to get even more granularity, the DNC convention is held in a new host city every time despite a huge swath of the Democratic platform being about addressing Climate Change. It doesn’t make these orgs hypocritical. It makes logistical sense for keeping the awards fresh, relevant, and not saddling one city with all of the coordination and responsibility every time.

If folks think all the pros of Earthshot are negated because it’s held in a new city every year, that’s fine. But all it tells me is we’re grasping at straws a little bit. Part of taking it to a new city every year is to highlight places/countries/cities and orgs within them doing great work in the conservation space. Boston is the number five greenest city in the USA and its leadership has taken big steps to lower their carbon footprint (like pledging to ensure that every household is a less than a 10-minute walk from a public electric vehicle charging station or EV car-share program). During Earthshot last year, W&C visited the water front and learned about the conservation efforts there. The trees used in the ceremony were later donated to be planted in Boston Public schools. There were little touches here and there acknowledging waste, including not flying 60-80 finalists into the ceremony.

Singapore, up next in November, is one of the greenest cities in the world. Because it was a small island that lacked natural resources, the central government carried out a planning and management approach to use the resources available efficiently. And its been a blueprint for other countries to follow.

At the Earthshot Prize innovation summit this past week, Charlot Magayi of Mukuru stoves says that when they won Earthshot, her company had sold 150 clean stoves. Since then? They have just reached a milestone of 400,000 homes due to the funding and exposure she received from Earthshot. And guess what? She didn’t fly in for the ceremony in 2022 in Boston….Instead?

Earthshot provided her company with $1.2M in seed money, she (along with the other winners/finalists from 2021 and 2022) visited Windsor for a week earlier this year for Earthshot Prize Fellowship Retreat. And much like 2022, where finalists were invited to COP26 to meet with business leaders, pitch their ideas to get funding, the these finalists were able to attend a forum in London hosted by Deloitte where they were connected with advisors, market access partners, and potential funders to help them scale up their solutions. Just Eat Ireland is investing €50,000 in 2022 Earthshot winner NotPla, to promote the roll-out of it’s sustainable packaging across it’s platform due to these connections. The Queensland Indigenous Womens Ranger Network, winners from 2022 are using their $1.18M (doled out over three years as is standard with grant funding) to beef up their ranks. They received a spread in Condé Nast and the CEO was in New York this week with Jacinda Arden.

Surely this carries more weight than who flies where? If you care about the climate, won’t you consider this a net positive? Showing that it's not just fluff? That William is putting his money, resources, and time where his mouth is, no?

I forget where I read it, but the reason why Earthshot is so successful is because it’s not about pleasing social media commentators. It’s about the people he’s helping. This post from the Billion Oyster Project nails it home. His presence alone (he arrived in New York via a commercial flight) brought eyes to their program and they’re eternally grateful. Focusing on who flies where is a convenient sleight of hand, though.

[gremlin45]

That was fascinating. Thank you, Tiana!

[Hujambo]

No prob!

With everything Earthshot has done with their platform and resources, I confess to scratching my head when social media chooses to fixate on who went in person to the Awards proper. On whose behalf exactly are you offended for? If it's about inclusion of the finalists, a LOT is being done to help them, which should please these same people!

JMHO: Royal opinions are only unpopular if they miss the full picture. The truth is, Earthshot is no different from something like COP (different city every year and there are compelling reasons for why that's the right call) and it does a LOT more for the finalists than people care to admit. And the proof is in the pudding. You don't have to take my word for it. Just listen to what the people whose lives and companies are being changed in huge ways have to say. Unless it's not really about them...?

[Auroranorth]

Earthshot's prize giving moving to different countries makes sense as it is a global competition.
For me, it's no more unreasonable for them to have it in varied countries than it is for the American Library Association to have their annual convention in different states. They come back to DC and Chicago most often, but the meetings have also been in Orlando, Toronto (though that was years back for a joint conference with the Canadian Library Association), New Orleans, and San Francisco. In earlier days it went to Detroit, Minneapolis, and Kansas City, MO. Now they have thousands of people attending, so the smaller cities are less logistically workable, though the Midwinter Meetings (which draw a smaller crowd) still meet in places like Philadelphia and Atlanta and Denver.

[ourdaisy]

Sept 21, 2023 19:48:45 GMT -4 @fitz said:

Sept 21, 2023 18:42:16 GMT -4 cancan said:

It's really no different from Invictus taking place in a different country every year, is it?

Invictus isn’t claiming to be in the environment realm of things it’s not saying its aim is to help the climate situation tho, which Earthshot is, an environmental prize. They are not in the same ball park at all the only thing there is in common is that his brother is involved.

edit

Sports have a tradition of moving about, Athletics, Football, Rugby etc Invictus is sports.

There isn’t a precedent that I know of, of a Prize for the ideas to help the environment climate situation that moves from global city to global city, it simply doesn’t sit right with me as I said it’s seems a bit contradictory to its own ethos.

I should’ve logged out earlier and stayed logged out tonight.
Apologies , I know I’m posting my unpopular royal related opinions too much again. I try to stay away I really do.

He explained why the move to different cities rather plainly in that People article:

"We want to get around the world. We want to see solutions in different places; we want to work with those existing ones while opening new chapters, new areas. I think Singapore is a gateway to Southeast Area; it's a new region. We know the innovation sectors there are huge..."

Granted he was probably twirling his mustache as he switched from foot to foot on the kittens he always stands on to make sure that 'H' looks short in comparison🤦

[canuckcutie]

EarthShot is happening as we speak in Singapore. William has been front and centre - dragon boating, speaking at wildlife summit and mingling with dignitaries. Tomorrow is the prize ceremony.

Meanwhile Harry was at a Katy Perry concert in Las Vegas. Not sure this is how Harry thought life post Royal family would play out.

[tiggertoo]

He was wearing a tie made of recycled plastic bottles. The company flipped out when they realized. They were wondering why their their online traffic was peaking. Very cute. And kind of amazing.

[canuckcutie]

William & Kate are at the Royal Variety Show performance tonight with the Swedish royals. As they exited their vehicle you can hear the assembled reporters screaming questions about Omid’s book.

Seems to be par for the course - the Sussexes cause drama and the royals are the ones the press try to put on the spot to answer for it.

[featherhat]

1 There is zero evidence
2)There is zero context
3) Meghan has had it in for Kate for nearly a decade now and isn't that a little suspicious?
4)The Sussexes's alleged story about this changes with every reiteration. When was it, who was it to, how many people were there? I Scobie meaning the COD (who was technically the POW at the time?

And yet the Sussexes still desperately want to be a (public) part of this family and were so very upset that their kids did not immediately have town criers and full Letters Patent and role in the coronation that they deserved because *birth right* PS Diana wanted Harry to be King and it is unconscionable that the family want nothing to do with them.

What???

If any of the stuff happened as they claimed it did, they would never want to go back. But yet we know they desperately do.

[canuckcutie]

I don’t forsee William ever having a relationship with his brother ever again. Likely the only time that William & Harry will be in the sane room together will be for family funerals. I don’t see William forgiving the endless attacks against the family and in particular against his wife. For sure Harry will screech that his brother won’t talk to him but I can’t see anyone blaming William for keeping Harry at arms length.