Charles calls for urgent plans
2009-03-12 21:25
Rio de Janeiro - The current global fiancial crisis is "nothing" compared to the impact of climate change, Britain's Prince Charles warned as he called for urgent environmental protection measures on Thursday.
"We are, I fear, at a defining moment in the world's history," he told a meeting of Brazilian business leaders and officials half-way through a Latin America tour.
"The global recession is far worse than any seen for generations," he said, adding that growing demand for energy and food created the potential for "political uncertainty in every continent."
But, worse, he said, was that "the threat of catastrophic climate change calls into question humanity's continued survival on the planet."
He stressed: "Any difficulties which the world faces today will be as nothing compared to the full effects which global warming will have on the world-wide economy."
The speech was billed as a key presentation in the prince's commitment to environmental conservation.
It came a day before Prince Charles and his wife Camilla were to head to Brazil's Amazon to see human impact on the world's biggest rainforest, sometimes called "the lungs of the Earth" for its role in soaking up greenhouse gases.
Prince Charles, 60, and Camilla, 61, were on a 10-day, three-nation tour taking in Chile, Brazil and Ecuador's Galapagos Islands - the research inspiration for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution - meant to draw attention to the challenges posed by climate change.
- SAPA