The Prince of Wales has praised the work of society while dealing with the ongoing pandemic in his annual birthday leader article for Country Life magazine.
The Prince, who marks his 72nd birthday on Saturday, wrote, “The strength of our society: its resourcefulness, its compassion and its stoical determination” is praiseworthy and that the nation will need to draw on those same qualities to tackle “the other deeply troubling problems our planet faces: global warming, climate change and the heartbreaking loss of biodiversity.”
He continued, saying: “The country, and the world, have experienced changes we could never have foreseen.
“Uncertainty has become a steady state; the previously unimaginable has become unexceptional; the extraordinary has become normal.
“At such a time, it is tempting, and understandable, to focus on the losses, the failures and the challenges. However, if the life of the land teaches anything, it is the need to look at the long term.”
The Prince warned: “We have a very short window of opportunity, which must not be squandered, in which to seize something good from this crisis and, as we rebuild, to put Nature, our planet and our children and grandchildren first.”
His list of suggestions on ways to improve the natural world includes innovative approaches to “be wise and far-sighted” as we all create new opportunities that work within the scope of the natural world and reverse declines.
“Like the threatened red squirrels collecting their hazelnuts or jays their seeds and acorns, we must be wise and far-sighted,” he wrote. Prince Charles hopes that the innovative techniques may lead to an increased bird population in the farmlands and woodlands, increased wild salmon population, and ways to improve farms that struggle with the extreme weather.
According to Country Life magazine, Charles’s ideas range “everything from wool insulation for houses to the National Garden Scheme, raising money through online videos, where the gardens themselves had to shut.”
The Prince of Wales has routinely contributed to Country Life magazine over the years, normally around his birthday.
