Prince William's Recent Instagram Post Has Fans Curious

Prince William and his various family members have been in the news a lot lately. Between the fallout after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's tell-all interview with Oprah and the reported ongoing family tensions surrounding a planned unveiling of a statue of Princess Diana, hardly a day goes by without a mention of the royal family in the news.

Prince William is attracting attention now for an entirely different reason: a new video he posted on Instagram. In the video, Prince William is seen controlling a drone as it flies in the air. He offered the barest of captions, simply noting, "@earthshotprize news coming later this week..." (via Pure Wow).

The Earthshot Prize was announced back in 2020 as a project put on by Prince William and the The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The goal of the Prize is to inspire a new generation of activists to come up with climate-friendly solutions to the ongoing global climate crisis: "The Prize aims to turn the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism, by highlighting the ability of human ingenuity to bring about change, and inspiring collective action" (via Earthshot Prize).

The Earthshot Prize will fund five projects with $65 million, and the projects chosen will be "simple but ambitious goals for our planet which if achieved by 2030 will improve life for us all, for generations to come" (via Earthshot Prize). 

When he announced the Prize in 2020, Prince William explained his motivation quite well. "The earth is at a tipping point and we face a stark choice: either we continue as we are and irreparably damage our planet or we remember our unique power as human beings and our continual ability to lead, innovate and problem-solve" (via Pure Wow).

Prince William also added that anyone is welcome to participate. "We hope that this Earthshot Prize reaches everyone around the world. From communities, schools, right up to banks, governments, corporations — anyone and everyone is a part of this and anyone could find the solutions that we need" (via BBC).

Prince William's Earthshot Prize was directly inspired by President John F. Kennedy's Moonshot program that resulted in successfully landing the first human on the moon. Celebrated environmentalist and conservationist Sir David Attenborough is also involved in the Earthshot Prize, and he explained the importance of getting behind such a project to the BBC last year.

"Suddenly we actually see the writing is on the wall. We are already seeing the coral reefs dying, forests disappearing, the North Pole beginning to melt. People can see it's happening and it is a matter of great urgency now." 

Prince William added that he hopes the program inspires many people around the world. "There's a lot of people wanting to do many good things in the environment and what they need is a bit of a catalyst, a bit of hope, a bit of positivity that we can actually fix what's being presented" (via BBC).