The first billionaire to become UK’s King

Charles has also been vocal — for decades — on the environmental catastrophes that so threaten humanity. Now, as king, he has an opportunity to help deepen the world’s understanding of the threats and the injustices humanity faces. But taking that course would require from Charles an intensity of introspection that no British royal has ever yet attempted.

The British empire, points out Institute for Policy Studies analyst Basav Sen, “quite literally” opened “the fossil-fueled Industrial Revolution, the driving force behind climate change.” And this leadership role rested on the “plunder of other parts of the world,” colonial centuries that “provided much of the capital investment for the large-scale buildout of manufacturing facilities and machinery.”

That plunder has left the empire’s colonized societies deeply indebted and distinctly vulnerable to the horrors of a climate change they did not cause, as the current tragedy in Pakistan — where flood waters have submerged a third of the nation — is vividly now attesting.

Pakistan, notes environmental journalist Emily Atkin, has so far “racked up $30 billion in damages from this year’s flooding.” The UK has so far come up with $1.7 million in aid.

British colonialism, Atkins adds, has left for nations like Pakistan “a legacy of massive climate vulnerability.” For the UK — and Charles — that era has left “a legacy of massive wealth.”

Charles could lead the way to addressing both these legacies. For starters, says Environmental Grantmakers Association president Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, he could make a call for debt forgiveness. And Charles could dramatically signal the importance of that call by taking one simple step. He could pledge a significant chunk of his own immense personal fortune to the Pakistani relief effort.- Inequality.org

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