Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, is taking heat for comments appearing to link the coronavirus pandemic with nature punishing humans.
“Someone said to me right at the beginning of the pandemic, it’s almost as though Mother Nature sends us to our rooms for bad behavior, to really take a moment and think about what we’ve done,” he said in a video interview with the new streaming service WaterBear Network, which is focused on climate and conservation documentaries.
Prince Harry, who moved to the U.S. from the U.K. along with his wife, Meghan Markle, earlier this year, told the network, “It’s been a universally tough year for everybody.”
“It certainly reminded me, as it’s probably has reminded all of us, how interconnected we all are, not just as people but through nature,” continued the prince, who is known for his environmental activism. “We take so much from her, but we rarely give anything back.”
His comments, which were quickly picked up by a number of conservative outlets, sparked criticism online.
U.K. critics such as Piers Morgan, co-host of “Good Morning Britain,” lobbed the charge of hypocrisy.
Morgan said on the show that Prince Harry “uses private planes like a taxi service” and likely has “16 bathrooms” in his California mansion.
“Every single raindrop that falls from the sky relieves the parched ground,” the prince said in the interview. “What if every single one of us was a raindrop and if every single one of us cared?”
“Be the raindrop you want to be!” Morgan argued in response. “You’ve got to practice what you preach.”
Prince Harry also spoke about nature as a “life source” and said his passion for the environment comes in part from becoming a father last year.
“The moment you become a father, everything really does change because then you start to realize, well, what is the point in bringing a new person into this world when they get to your age and it’s on fire?” he said. “We can’t steal their future. We really can’t. That’s not the job we’re here for.”