King Charles went through a major transformation after a historic event which has eventually set the tone for trajectory Prince William will take for his own reign.
The monarch, during his tenure as the Prince of Wales, actively advocated about protecting the environment and he inculcated those same values to his two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
William and Harry have frequently shared in the past about how their father would encourage turning off extra lights and talk about saving energy for the sake of the planet. This meaningful realisation stemmed from a visit a 26-year-old Charles took to Canada’s Northwest Passage.
He took a daring step as he dived three metres beneath the ice in the Arctic, and staying still for several minutes taking in the magnanimity of the raw power and the fragile beauty of the natural world. Dr Joe MacInnis, who dived with Charles 50 years ago, recounted the events in an upcoming ITV documentary.
“He looked so intensely, like he was trying to understand or absorb what he was seeing,” talking about Charles’s reaction. “I realised he was looking with three eyes - two in his head and one in his heart. It seemed like a very profound moment, as if he could already sense how fragile it all was.”
Dr Joe, now 88, shared that it was this experience that shaped Charles’s passion for protecting the environment.
“He went to the Arctic as a young man to find out more about history, but he left with the beginnings of his spiritual connection with nature and deep understanding of the planet.” Joe told The Mirror, noting that the King is a “man who has his pulse on the planet, and he knows what we need to do to fix it”.
About the wisdom imparted to William, Dr Joe admired Charles’s “moral courage” and his efforts to take on “some unpopular, ahead-of-his-time decisions”
“He’s passed on what he’s learned to his children, with his heir, William, just as passionate about the environment.”
William has since extended on his father’s work in his own capacity, which the most prominent example being his Earthshot Prize, aimed to find practical solutions to fix the planet’s most urgent and crucial problems.