New king will have to eschew grand statements on climate crisis but his role does not stop him talking to the PM in private
Accession of King Charles and death of Queen Elizabeth – latest updates
In 1970, the young Prince of Wales made a speech warning of the dangers of pollution, and said society must deal urgently with the cost of cleaning it up, and preventing it in the first place.
“We are faced at this moment with the horrifying effects of pollution in all its cancerous forms. There is the growing menace of oil pollution at sea, which almost destroys beaches and certainly destroys tens of thousands of seabirds,” he told the Countryside Steering Committee for Wales. “There is chemical pollution discharged into rivers from factories and chemical plants, which clogs up the rivers with toxic substances and adds to the filth in the seas. There is air pollution from smoke and fumes discharged by factories and from gases pumped out by endless cars and aeroplanes.”
