logo
Prince William gives emotional plea to world leaders urging them to act to save the planet

Prince William gives emotional plea to world leaders urging them to act to save the planet

Scottish Sun8 hours ago

Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
THE Prince of Wales said watching humans destroy our oceans was 'simply heartbreaking' as he urged world leaders to act by thinking big yesterday.
William's call came in a speech to the Blue Economy and Finance Forum on ocean preservation at the ­Grimaldi Forum in Monaco after meeting France's President Emmanuel Macron.
Sign up for Scottish Sun
newsletter
Sign up
2
Prince William said watching humans destroy our oceans was 'simply heartbreaking' as he urged world leaders to act
2
Prince William meets France's President Emmanuel Macron
Credit: Reuters
The prince, whose opening and closing remarks were in French, said those attending were 'united by our deep connection to the ocean and our ­concern for its safety'.
William, in navy suit with a recycled sustainable tie from Wilmok, said the clock was ticking on meeting the target agreed at the 2022 UN Biodiversity Summit aiming to protect at least 30 per cent of the world's land and sea by 2030.
Speaking at the heads of state and government session on the forum's final day, the prince added: 'Watching human activity reduce beautiful sea forests to barren deserts at the base of our oceans is simply heartbreaking.
'For the future of our planet, for the future generations, we must listen to the words of Sir David Attenborough: 'If we save the sea, we save our world'.
'I call on all of you to think big in your actions.'
World leaders were greeted by a blue carpet as they arrived at the event, with William chatting with Mr Macron and other dignitaries.
Addressing an audience of 1,800, William said: 'Rising sea temperatures, plastic pollution and overfishing are putting pressure on fragile ecosystems.
'What once seemed an abundant resource is diminishing before our eyes.
"We all stand to be impacted. And we are all responsible for change — both negative and positive.
"But there remains time to turn this tide.'
Wills jokes 'families can be a mixed bag - some of them might not want to see you much'
Later, William said he went through a range of emotions when he saw Sir David's new Ocean film.
He told Enric Sala, who worked on the film: 'I got angry, then sad, then I got frustrated, then I got happy.'
Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme - Sun Club.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Riots in LA as Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom call each other 'liars'
Riots in LA as Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom call each other 'liars'

The National

time23 minutes ago

  • The National

Riots in LA as Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom call each other 'liars'

They blocked off a major road and set self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd. Many protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly, a precursor to officers moving in and making arrests of people who do not leave. Some of those remaining threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier that spanned the width of a street and others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the closed southbound 101 freeway. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover. (Image: Kevin Lamarque, REUTERS) Sunday's protests in Los Angeles, a sprawling city of four million people, were centred in downtown several blocks. It was the third and most intense day of demonstrations against Trump's immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of around 300 Guard troops spurred anger and fear among many residents. The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the detention centre where protesters concentrated. Los Angeles police chief Jim McDonnell said officers were 'overwhelmed' by the remaining protesters. He said they included regular agitators who appear at demonstrations to cause trouble. Several dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend of protest. One was detained on Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police, and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers. Trump responded to McDonnell on Truth Social, telling him to arrest protesters in face masks. 'Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!' he wrote. (Image: AP Photo/Eric Thayer) Starting in the morning, the troops stood shoulder to shoulder, carrying long guns and riot shields as protesters shouted 'shame' and 'go home'. After some closely approached the guard members, another set of uniformed officers advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street. Minutes later, the Los Angeles Police Department fired rounds of crowd-control munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully. Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 freeway until state patrol officers cleared them from the roadway by late afternoon. Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently as the electric vehicles burned. By evening, police had issued an unlawful assembly order shutting down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles. Flash bangs echoed out every few seconds into the evening. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom requested that Trump remove the guard members in a letter on Sunday afternoon, calling their deployment a 'serious breach of state sovereignty'. He was in Los Angeles meeting local law enforcement and officials. READ MORE: Israeli army boards Freedom Flotilla ship trying to reach Gaza as 'connection lost' The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state's national guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration's mass deportation efforts. Newsom and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass blamed the increasingly aggressive protests on Trump's decision to deploy the Guard, calling it a move designed to inflame tensions. They have both urged protesters to remain peaceful. 'What we're seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration,' she said in an afternoon press conference. 'This is about another agenda, this isn't about public safety.' But McDonnell, the LAPD chief, said the protests were following a similar pattern for episodes of civil unrest, with things ramping up in the second and third days. He pushed back against claims by the Trump administration that the LAPD had failed to help federal authorities when protests broke out on Friday after a series of immigration raids. His department responded as quickly as it could, and had not been notified in advance of the raids and therefore was not pre-positioned for protests, he said. Newsom, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation under control. California governor Gavin Newsom (Image: Mike Blake, Reuters) He mocked Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles, and said on MSNBC that Mr Trump never floated deploying the Guard during a Friday phone call. He called Mr Trump a 'stone cold liar'. The admonishments did not deter the administration. 'It's a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved,' White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighbouring Compton. Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA's fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations on Friday. The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot. The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said. Many more were arrested while protesting, including a prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement. The protests did not reach the size of past demonstrations that brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops. The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Centre for Justice. In a directive on Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States'. He said he had authorised the deployment of 2000 members of the National Guard. Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday that there were 'violent people' in Los Angeles 'and they're not going to get away with it'. Asked if he planned to send US troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied: 'We're going to have troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country.' He did not elaborate. About 500 marines stationed at Twentynine Palms, about 125 miles (200 kilometres) east of Los Angeles were in a 'prepared to deploy status' on Sunday afternoon, according to the US Northern Command.

An end to deep sea dredging
An end to deep sea dredging

Telegraph

time37 minutes ago

  • Telegraph

An end to deep sea dredging

Sir David Attenborough has condemned the damage inflicted on the ocean floor by trawling, calling it 'unspeakably awful'. He was speaking to the Prince of Wales ahead of this week's UN conference on the oceans in Nice which is seeking international support for a new High Seas Treaty. Prince William backed this up in a speech in Monaco, calling the devastation 'heartbreaking'. The destruction of the deep ocean by dredging has been known for decades but it never becomes a major political issue because the impact is unseen. In a new documentary, Ocean, Sir David highlights the potential damage to marine life from some fishing practices, like bottom trawling. Were the same desecration to be inflicted on, say, the Maasai Mara or some other visible and valued eco-system the world reaction would stop it. As Sir David said: 'If you did anything remotely like it on land, everybody would be up in arms.' The UN treaty was signed two years ago and needs to be ratified by 60 countries to take legal effect. It would offer marine protected area (MPA) status to 30 per cent of the world's oceans to let them recover. So far just 32 have done so, including France and Spain – but not the UK, which still allows bottom dredging in MPAs around our shores. In a bid to 'reset' relationships with the EU, French and Spanish trawlers will be allowed access to UK waters for a longer post-Brexit period, a decision that has been denounced in fishing communities as a 'betrayal'. But why should French and Spanish boats be allowed to carry out trawling practices in British waters that their own governments do not want to see in their own? The UK Government has dragged its feet over ratifying this treaty. It needs to get on with it.

The battle of the Channel has been fought
The battle of the Channel has been fought

Spectator

timean hour ago

  • Spectator

The battle of the Channel has been fought

Kemi Badenoch says the Conservative party will take a look at withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), freeing us at a leap and a bound from the tyranny of human rights lawyers. The Tory leader would give Britain the power to deter the cross-Channel influx of asylum seekers, by withdrawing protections from those arriving in Britain without papers. As there is unlikely to be a Conservative government in the foreseeable future, this announcement it's going to have no effect now, or any time soon, on the actual boats. And read the fine print: Badenoch hasn't really even made up her mind; she is going to set up a committee to look into it. In the real world, the boats aren't being stopped, the gangs aren't being smashed and the French judges and police are shrugging.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store