Becoming a parent changes your perspective on world issues. Many people find themselves caring more about the greater world around them as they bring little lives into the world.
Even royalty isn't exempt from the feeling. Prince William opened up about his own frustrations in a recent podcast appearance. The Duke of Cambridge was on Outrage + Optimism, with Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson.
Prince William was on the climate change-centered podcast to discuss the responsibilities we face in saving the planet. Climate change is a topic that William knows a lot about. Prince Charles has championed climate-related issues for decades. Prince Philip has also been passionate about issues of climate for many years.
William is now joining the family in that cause in a more vocal way than before. On the podcast, he opens up about how the inaction of world leaders on the subject keeps him up at night.
The state of the physical planet is causing a lot of people great concern. In just a matter of decades, climate change went from a fringe issue to a full-fledged crisis. Prince William has been connected to the subject his whole life and is aware of the dire situation we are in today.
William recently appeared on the Outrage + Optimism podcast with Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson. In his discussion, he aired his frustrations on how many of those in positions of power have failed to act on this important matter. He shared he gets "outraged by the inaction."
"That's probably a bit of a cliché but that is what I get most troubled about," the Duke of Cambridge continued.
"Especially as I'm in a position of responsibility if you like, or leadership."
"I feel I can do a lot more if given that ability. So therefore I don't understand why those who have the levers don't," he continued.
"Yeah, and I think that's what really upsets me and keeps me awake at night."
William was also on the podcast to talk about the Earthshot Prize, an ambitious new initiative. William has teamed up with a number of noteworthy figures on the project's advisory board. He's hoping this group will help him as he bids to find the people, organizations, businesses, cities, and countries that have some answers to the most pressing environmental challenges.
"It's about highlighting and raising people's voices and genuine, tangible solutions to some of the hardest environmental problems to face," he said.
"And if we can do that and elevate, these peoples become household names, these solutions become household solutions, then we feel we've brought in an added dimension to the debates."
In making this happen, there's a need to look back and look forward.
"It's important to understand the history and the past, to be able to kind of carve out and plan for the future. We are where we are because of what's gone before us," William noted.
"My family is a very visual description of that, I think. Each generation understands its responsibility to better from the previous generation and to look after and nurture and to be custodians of the world and things like that.
"My family's naturally had an opinion here to support and to be a part of the environmental debate for a long time, because it's been, you know, at the forefront of a lot of conversations and a lot of issues for many, many years."
The Earthshot Prize Council boasts a lot of big names in addition to William and podcast host Christiana, who served as the former UN climate chief. They are Cate Blanchett; Queen Rania of Jordan; Shakira; Dani Alves, the captain of the Brazilian football team; TV icon Sir David Attenborough; Hindou Ibrahim, an environmental activist from Chad; former CEO of Pepsi Co. Indra Nooyi; Chinese businessman and entrepreneur Jack Ma; the second woman from Japan to go to space, Naoko Yamazaki; Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an economist and international development expert from Nigeria; and former basketball player Yao Ming.
The idea behind the prize is to implement solutions in the near future, particularly in the next decade. The categories for the prizes are Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World, and Fix Our Climate. The simple, straightforward goals are still ambitious and universally agreed upon by figures in the scientific community as steps that if achieved by 2030 will improve life for all of Earth's creatures.
In a recent documentary, Prince William: A Planet for Us All, William delved into how his passion for environmental causes is very much learned from his father and grandfather, Prince Charles and Prince Philip.
"My grandfather and my father have been in environmental work for many years," he said.
"My grandfather's well ahead of his time. My father, ahead of his time. And I really want to make sure that, in 20 years, George doesn't turn round and say, 'Are you ahead of your time?' Because if he does, we're too late."
William was candid in his admission that parenthood made him care more about the causes he was already passionate about.
"Now I've got George, Charlotte, and now Louis," he said.
"Your outlook does change and that's why I had to do something because I really felt like by the time my children were 20, at the rate poaching was at, there may not have been another rhino in the world."
In a BBC Radio 4 spot plugging the Earthshot Prize, William was asked about the fact that Charles' ideas about the environment were once considered a bit out there.
"I regularly wonder what my father's banging on about and I'm sure every son thinks the same," he joked.
"He's talked about this for a long time and long before people sort of cottoned on to climate change."
"So, I've always listened to and learned and believed in what he was saying," he continued. Then he pointed out how commonplace the ideas are today.
"I think the dotty person now would be the person who doesn't believe in climate change."
