The Guardian, 6/18/2012
In a prerecorded speech to the Rio+20 UN sustainable development conference today, the Prince of Wales warned of the potentially “catastrophic” consequences of inaction on issues such as climate change and global food security.
In the video address, Charles said: “I have watched in despair at how slow progress has sometimes been and how the outright, sceptical reluctance by some to engage with the critical issues of our day have often slowed that progress to a standstill.
“As I speak, the world’s rainforests continue to be destroyed, wiping out so much of the world’s vital biodiversity and removing our chances of storing carbon naturally.
“And we continue to ignore the painful lessons of the so-called green revolution in India by intensifying our food production methods in such blinkered, chemically and technologically-based ways, that the land and the oceans are now both beginning to fail.”
He added: “Already levels of CO2 have exceeded 400 parts per million. 450 parts per million is the tipping point we have to avoid so every day of delay threatens to make the change more dramatic.”
He added that scientific evidence shows the potential consequences and warned we can no longer ignore the risk.
