King makes direct plea to protect the environment
King tells U.S. Congress their nations must ‘safeguard nature’
In a rare address to a joint session of U.S. Congress on Tuesday, King Charles spoke on the challenge of protecting the environment, highlighting the ‘collapse of critical natural systems’ that ‘provide the foundation for our prosperity and our national security.’
Before the King’s speech, there was some curiosity about what he would — and would not — say.
Would he, for example, devote any attention to nature, sustainability and climate change, issues where his long-known and long-held views diverge significantly from Trump’s.
It turns out Charles spoke directly to the challenge and need he sees in protecting the environment.
“As we look toward the next 250 years, we must also reflect on our shared responsibility to safeguard nature, our most precious and irreplaceable asset,” he said.
“Millennia before our nations existed, before any border drawn, the mountains of Scotland and Appalachia were one; a single, continuous range, forged in the ancient collision of continents.”
Even as the beauty that surrounds us is celebrated, Charles said, “our generation must decide how to address the collapse of critical natural systems, which threatens far more than the harmony and essential diversity of nature.
“We ignore at our peril the fact that these natural systems — in other words, nature’s own economy — provide the foundation for our prosperity and our national security.”
