SAN FRANCISCO: Prince Charles of Britain on Tuesday took his battle to save rainforests to MySpace, calling for Internet users to rally to protect dwindling natural treasures vital to their survival.
A Prince of Wales Rainforest Project page debuted on MySpace with the prince outlining his mission and an online premier of a video urging support for the cause.
"One of the Internet's strengths is that it can help diverse communities to come together to insure that everybody's views and actions can really be made to count," the prince said in an online video.
"Your collective support is needed now in the urgent fight against climate change and in saving the Earth's most precious and valuable resources: tropical rainforests."
Rainforests help cool the climate and absorb carbon dioxide gas that is a culprit in global warming, the prince said.
He explained that he launched Rainforest Project two years ago with a goal of finding ways to make trees "more valuable alive than dead, so there is no incentive to cut them down."
At MySpace, Prince Charles premiered a video urging people to sign-up to join an online movement to convince political leaders to take meaningful actions to protect rainforests.
The "sign-up video" features celebrities, royalty, and even the Dalai Lama appearing with the broadcast's main star -- a rainforest frog.
"As you may be aware, princes and frogs have had a long association," the prince quipped.
"However, our frog has come to symbolize something new..a symbol of action ... saving the rainforest can help save us all before it really is too late."
Prince Charles told Italian lawmakers in Rome last week that time is quickly running out in the battle against global warming, and history will judge the world's response to the crisis.
Speaking in parliament's elegant Sala della Lupa, the prince said only 98 months remained before experts predict irreversible effects of greenhouse gas emissions, and "the clock is ticking away inexorably."
While in Italy, the 60-year-old heir to the British throne appealed for "inspired leadership" in the lead-up to United Nations climate change talks to be held in Copenhagen in December.
At MySpace, the prince urged Internet users to help "build an online community to call, from the bottom up, for urgent action to protect the rainforest by the time world leaders gather in Copenhagen."
People can sign up online at the project's website at rainforestsos.org.
