Three days in a row of “work” from Prince William, I’m shocked! He’s about to go so deep underground whenever his kids have the next school holiday, I’m sure. Not that anyone in the British media will remark on it – we never even got any secondary reporting on that little “family ski holiday” after Christmas, and I still have my doubts as to whether William was even there. Anyway, on Monday, William and Kate attended a Holocaust Remembrance event in London. On Tuesday, the feudal landlord cosplayed Farmer Huevo and asked actual farmers about the cost of living. And today? He played with kids for something to do with Earthshot.
Prince William is paying a visit to one of his Earthshot Prize’s most recent group of finalists. The Prince of Wales, 42, made a trip to Guildford on Wednesday, Jan. 29 to stop by NatureMetrics, a 2024 Earthshot Prize finalist that enables companies to measure and report on their impact on nature and ecosystems.
According to Kensington Palace, NatureMetrics uses its unique technology to revolutionize the scale and accessibility of nature data collection through environmental DNA (eDNA), helping commercial and conservation organizations make more informed choices to better protect and maintain biodiverse ecosystems.
NatureMetrics was a finalist in the Protect and Restore Nature category at the fourth iteration of William’s Earthshot Prize Awards, held in Cape Town, South Africa last November. Since the company became a finalist, NatureMetrics has secured a $25 million investment, raised with support from The Earthshot Prize’s investment platform Launchpad, according to Kensington Palace.
During his visit Jan. 29, Prince William watched a demonstration of NatureMetrics’ eDNA sampling process at its onsite lake, and was joined by local schoolchildren who are learning about The Earthshot Prize as part of their studies. Prince William was also joined by science communicator Big Manny, a 27-year-old science-first content creator and music artist, who is collaborating with The Earthshot Prize to introduce its environmental solutions to young people around the world.
As someone who has written about Earthshot for so many years now, one of my biggest complaints was always that it could and should function as a way for international groups/companies to innovate together, and that Earthshot should do more to serve as a “launchpad” to get those companies more investment and funding, because the actual “Earthshot Prize money” is negligible in the world of environmental investment/startups. And now it seems like someone at Earthshot – someone who was probably not William – actually thought to put that investment “launchpad” within Earthshot. On one side, good – that’s the one thing which will actually make a huge difference. On the other side, it’s basically an admission that even with the platform of Earthshot, these companies and projects still weren’t getting the financial boost they needed. What’s also fascinating is that William has not explained this at any point – this is all coming from Kensington Palace’s press release. They just send that bearded egg out to make an ass out of himself for photo-ops.
The beard trim continues to be so ODD.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
