Albert Preaches the "Green" Gospel

The Sovereign Prince of Monaco is serious about the environment -as absolutely everyone should know at this point- and he was banging the environmentalism drum again on the first of this month he officially opened "Monacology"; a week of environmental awareness in the Principality of Monaco. This year it corresponded with International Kids Day so there was some special attention given to children. A number of topics were talked about from fishing (bad), farming (bad), deforestation (bad), repotting plants (good) and recycling (good). The next day he was in Paris to talk plants and hand out Prince Rainier III scholarships. That is probably one reason why Prince Albert (who talks about environmentalism *alot*) is usually preaching to the choir when it comes to 'green' issues. There really is not much Monaco can do to impact the environment; it is extremely developed but does have a high percentage of park space for so small a country and the Prince is constantly on the move, jetting around the world which would not tend to make global warming skeptics take him very seriously (though the Prince has done far more than many others who only talk about the problem). It is obviously an issue he cares a great deal about, but talking about the polar ice cap or ocean temperatures simply does not stir the public sympathy in the same way as Princess Stephanie caring for AIDS victims or Princess Caroline caring for orphans and destitute children does.