While contentious debates rage within us regarding the top of environmentally devastating practices like fracking, the UK is taking a more positive approach to global climate change. On Thursday, Prince William announced the launch of a replacement project called the "Earth shot Prize" — the name inspired by the historic 1961 "Moonshot" program which sent the primary man to the moon (via The NY Times). The project is offering a 1 million pound reward to as many as 50 projects offering innovative solutions to deal with global climate change. That's a 50 million pound, or $65 million, incentive to, within the prince's own words, "turn the present pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism."
The project will give five £1 million awards over each of the subsequent ten years to groups or individuals offering solutions to tackle cleaning the air, protecting and restoring nature, reviving the oceans, tackling waste, and overall fixing the climate, during a similar fashion to the annual Nobel Prizes (via CNN). The aim is to possess 50 solutions to those problems by the year 2030, and therefore the project already has some big names lending their support.
Celebrities from everywhere the planet are endorsing Prince William's new project
While you would possibly assume the world shot prize council would be made up entirely of British scientists, that couldn't be farther from the case. consistent with the official Earth shot Prize website, the worldwide list of prize council members includes Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Australian actress Cate Blanchett, professional athlete Dani Alves of Brazil, former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi of the U.S., and India, former astronaut Naoko Yamazaki of Japan, Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Yao Ming of China, and singer Shakira of Colombia, additionally to many environmental activists and global climate change experts.
As for who is eligible for these impressive prizes, Prince William told Radio 4 that he hopes the project spans the whole world, "From communities, schools, right up to banks, governments, corporations – anyone and everybody may be a part of this and anyone could find the solutions that we need" (via BBC). In fact, even "crackpot ideas" are welcome, consistent with Earth shot councilor and natural historian Sir David Attenborough, seeing because the very way forward for mankind depends on these solutions being found (via CBS News).
The truth about Prince William's secret volunteer gig
Prince William has been doing personal volunteer work since May for a charity he launched together with his wife Kate Middleton, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle in November 2019. He revealed during a chat in May with fellow volunteers that he was secretly working side-by-side with the volunteers. The organization called Shout85258 is that the UK's first 24/7 crisis text line and has quite 2,000 crisis volunteers to support people concerning issues like bullying, suicidal thoughts, abuse, and more (via Us Weekly). Since the founding of the organization, quite 300,000 text messages are exchanged between volunteers and texters during a crisis
In a video shared on Kensington Royal's Instagram page on June 5, William told a gaggle of Shout85258 volunteers, "I'm getting to share a touching secretly with you guys, but I'm actually on the platform volunteering." The official Instagram of the organization commented, "Thank you for your support."
Prince William's announcement was at the top of Volunteers' Week
The UK celebrated Volunteers' Week this year from June 1 to June 7 (via volunteersweek.org). Although William has been working with Shout85258 and volunteering with the organization before Volunteers' Week, the announcement was a welcome week to urge UK citizens to hitch in volunteerism. Queen Elizabeth praised volunteers, including those in her family, during a special message on Twitter.
"As Volunteers' Week draws to an in-depth, it's inspiring to reflect on the various thousands of individuals, who through their acts of generosity and kindness, have achieved such a lot for the greater good," she said during a statement. "I am following with interest how men and ladies from around the world, including my very own family, are helping and recognizing the vital role of the volunteer. I send my best wishes to all or any those that give themselves so freely and selflessly within the service of others."
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