Earth Equity News

Prince Charles Urges Climate Action to Prevent 'Drought and Starvation on a Grand Scale'. Graham Tibbetts, Telegraph (UK), May 16, 2008. "Prince Charles said rainforests provided the 'air conditioning system for the entire planet,' releasing water vapour and absorbing carbon, but were being lost to poor farmers desperate to make a living. Safeguarding them would cost the international community around $30 billion (£15 billion) a year and require a 'gigantic partnership' of governments, businesses and consumers, he told BBC [on Thursday]. 'What we have got to do is try to ensure that these forests are more valuable alive than dead. At the moment, there is more value in them being dead,' he said... Although companies are seeking ways of using technology to capture carbon emissions, the prince said concentrating on the rainforests would be more effective. 'If we can halt deforestation, what these rainforests do in absorbing carbon is infinitely more effective and cheaper to achieve than trying to indulge in all these very expensive technologies,' he said."