In the latest instalment of No Smoke Without Fire—entitled The Green King, Part 1—Brian Gerrish and Debi Evans take a relaxed but in-depth look at King Charles the man, and his involvement in the sustainable development narrative. Is he just the benign, slightly eccentric new figurehead, as many think, or is he the key man behind Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum? Who exactly is King Charles and what are the connections between the monarch and the tyrannical sustainable Brave New World initiative that we are all expected to embrace and accept? In fact, how well do people really know their new king and his ambitions? There are so many questions.
Charles III is Monarch of the United Kingdom and Head of the Commonwealth, many of whose member states are his realms as King. As the firstborn son and heir to the throne, he acceded to the throne immediately upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. He is the oldest person ever to be crowned in Britain.
Born at Buckingham Palace on 14 November 1948, he was circumcised by Rabbi Jacob Snowman, a well-known London physician and mohel, in December 1948. Boarding first at Cheam School and then at Gordonstoun, which he is known to have hated, he went on to finish his schooling in Australia. In 1969, he earned a history degree at the University of Cambridge, then served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force from 1971 to 1976. On 26 July 1958, Charles was created Prince of Wales, although he was not invested in the role until 1 July 1969 at Caernarfon Castle, having reached twenty years of age. He took his seat in the House of Lords in 1970.
His father the late, Duke of Edinburgh ,a staunch and passionate environmentalist, founder of the World Wildlife Fund and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, was determined to consolidate the fusion that was already nascent in the 1960s between environmentalism and faith. In 1965, together with the then Dean of Windsor, Prince Philip instituted St George's House in Windsor to provide a residential centre where laity and clergy could meet and discuss ideas of mutual interest.
To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, a conference was held at Assisi which was to include the most senior leaders of the five main world religions. The discussion included the issue of what, if any, responsibility believers felt for the natural environment as a ‘sacred entity’. It was agreed at the conference that a charity should be formed to help and guide religions to make their contribution to the ‘conservation of nature’, according to their beliefs and traditions.
The Duke of Edinburgh argued that:
Conservation is the only issue that is truly international, inter-denominational, inter-ideological and inter-racial.
In 1995, the Alliance of Religion and Conservation (ARC) was launched in partnership with Citigroup, and with the Duke of Edinburgh as its patron. In 2015, the United Nations asked ARC to consult the religions on the forging of the new touchstone of environmentalism, the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. At the landmark Zug meeting in Switzerland in 2017, it was agreed that a new global organisation was needed to drive ‘faith-consistent investment’.
ARC was finally closed on 27 June 2019, a day after the launch of its successor, Faithinvest, which supports religious groups to invest in line with their beliefs and values. Faithinvest was founded with significant funding from many partner organisations, including:
- United Nations Environment,
- the World Bank Climate Investment Fund,
- Religions for Peace,
- EcoSikh,
- the Vatican,
- WWF International, and many others.
The ecological movement is alive and well in all major religions.
Faith is big business, and religious bodies hold billions of dollars in trust, which are invested in global stock markets. Faith groups are the natural powerhouse for values-based investing that can contribute towards the environment and supports the aims of the Sustainable Goals.
But who founded the Sustainable Goals Initiative, who established ‘Accounting for Sustainability’, and who said this?
Nature’s contribution to the global economy is estimated to be worth more than $125 trillion annually, greater than the world’s annual GDP.
Let’s ask some more questions. Who has been the architect of experimental new towns in England? Who is the father of organic farming, and who popularised the concept of anthropogenic climate change? Who supports pharmaceutical companies while professing to support ‘alternative medicine’? The answer is, of course, none other than Prince—now King—Charles.
As Defender of the Faith who once very publicly expressed that he would prefer to be Defender of Faiths, and as patron of over 800 charities and organisations, Charles has found much to occupy himself in the world of religious philanthropy. Moreover, what was the then Prince of Wales, as the longest-waiting heir apparent in British history, building for his future reign that has now begun? Please join Brian Gerrish and Debi Evans as we lift more than a few royal stones and take a good look underneath.
Part 2 of this discussion is here.
Relevant UK Column articles:
Welby’s Church of England 2021: £Trillions for Gaia Greed but Peanuts for the Parish Paupers
The Church of England: Ethically investing in pornography, weapons and embryonic stem cells (2023)