Prince William Is Working on a Book to Support The Earthshot Prize
It's not quite a royal memoir, but Prince William has a writing project in the works too. The Duke of Cambridge will pen an exclusive introduction for the book Earthshot: How to Save Our Planet, which will highlight our world's biggest environmental challenges today and inspiring solutions to help face them.
Co-authored by former World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) executive director Colin Butfield and award-winning director Jonnie Hughes, the work will be the definitive book for The Earthshot Prize, the ambitious award program established by William to amplify and incentivize the best solutions for our planet over the next 10 years. From 2021 to 2030, the prize will reward plans following its five key goals: protect and restore nature, clean our air, revive our oceans, build a waste-free world, and fix our climate.
The Earthshot book will be published this fall via John Murray, alongside a five-part BBC One series created by the authors. The duo also worked on the 2020 Netflix documentary, David Attenborugh: A Life on Our Planet.
"The Earthshot concept is simple: we have ten years to turn the tide, fifty ingenious ideas, and one goal—to save our planet. What we need is action and optimism. Our book reaches from the coral reefs of Mexico, via palm oil plantations in Borneo and sheep farms in Australia, to the forests of Kenya. It's an explanation of how we've got to this point, and how—by acting collectively—we can fix it," the pair said.
William launched The Earthshot Prize in October 2020 through The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. It's touted as "the most prestigious environment prize in history"—the prince wanted to create something like the Nobel Peace Prize—that will annually reward five individuals, companies, organizations, and more with £1 million ($1.2 million) each for their groundbreaking initiatives.
The Duke of Cambridge first came up with the idea in 2018 after learning about conservation issues during a trip to Namibia, Kenya, and Tanzania. He then discussed the idea with none other than Sir David Attenborough, and after two years of organizing, finally launched.
"The plan is to really galvanize and bring together the best minds, the best possible solutions, to fixing and tackling some of the world’s greatest environmental challenges," he said in a video at the time of the announcement. "We've got to harness our ingenuity and our ability to invent. The next ten years are a critical decade for change. Time is of the essence, which is why we believe that this very ambitious global prize is the only way forward."
The first Earthshot Prize award ceremony will take place this fall.
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