Green Daily

Even though HRH Prince Charles has been an environmental crusader for many years, lately he's been catching a lot of flack for all of the CO2 he emits while crusading against climate change.

(People! He's a prince! Royalty! He's never going to fly economy class from London to Rome. Never! If for no other reason than it's a huge security hazard for the other passengers!)

The Prince's preference for private jets aside, he is a very smart man who has spent years studying -- and crusading for -- ways to conserve the wild places in the world. In advance of the big climate summit in Copenhagen, he is kicking off a new campaign to save rainforests, with help from celebrities like Daniel Craig, the Dalai Lama, Joss Stone, Harrison Ford, and of course, Kermit the Frog.

I say "of course" because Kermit is always sticking his cold green area-that-would-be-a-nose, if he had one, into environmental causes. And also because the star of the campaign is another frog, a surprisingly lifelike animated frog that appears alongside the stars and "ribbits' at humorous moments.

The campaign is part of "The Prince's Rainforest Project" which has two goals:

• to raise awareness of the damaging effects for everyone of deforestation
• to identify appropriate incentives that will encourage rainforest nations to stop burning down vast areas of valuable trees.

My favorite part of this video is when Prince Charles points out that one way to save the rainforests to make the trees as valuable when they are alive and "breathing" as when they are chopped down for timber and to clear farm land. See? The Prince is a smart guy! And surprisingly practical for someone who mostly lives in castles with tons of servants, and who refers to himself in the plural.

Most importantly, he's a guy who is using his position to help save the world. It's almost enough to make me forgive him for the whole Princess Diana thing. In fact, if he can stop climate change, I'm willing to call it even.