It Isn't Easy Being "Green"

(CBS)  Prince Charles is coming to America, spending the weekend in Philadelphia and New York, where he will receive an important environmental award.

But back in Britain, some are saying if the prince is a real environmentalist, he would have stayed at home. CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports.

The prince hasn't been in the news much lately. He and his wife, Camilla, have been doing what friends hoped they would be doing: getting along quietly. Instead, it's Charles' sons who are in the news, marching on with their lives in the military and having their girlfriends hounded by the press. A prime target is Kate Middleton, the romantic interest of Prince William.

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Photos: Kate Middleton

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For Charles, one of the benefits of being the heir to the throne currently occupied by your mother is that you have a lot of spare time. One of the ways he's filled this time has resulted in an all-expense-paid trip to the U.S., to pick up an award.

It's the Global Environmental Citizen Award given by Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment. Presenting the award will be last year's recipient, former Vice President Al Gore.

Says royal spokesman Paddy Herverson, "Well, I think the award recognizes his long commitment to environmental causes…he's been talking about since the 1980s. In fact, he made a TV program here back in the 1980s in which he interviewed Al Gore…before he became vice president, so there's a nice circular story there."

But Charles is a magnet for controversy. There's now an argument raging whether it's proper for an environmentalist to leave carbon footprints all the way across the Atlantic by flying thousands of miles to pick up an award for being an environmentalist.

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Photos: In Royal Circles

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Says Joss Garman of the action group Plane Stupid, "Aviation is the fastest growing cause of greenhouse gases, which cause climate change. And so it's just not acceptable any more for someone, especially a leader, to fly just for two days across the Atlantic. And the irony is that he's going to pick up an environmental award. It's a bit like turning up at an OxFam or Red Cross charity award in a stretch limo.

The palace says there are other reasons for the trip as well, and speaking of limos, they say Charles, the "green" prince, is going to convert his cars to biofuels and reduce his carbon footprint in other ways.

"For a number of years," says Harverson, "he's been using helicopters and private aircraft to travel around both the U.K. and, in certain cases, overseas. What we are trying to do is reduce the use of those aircraft and, wherever possible, use scheduled flights.

So for the first time, Charles' trip to the U.S. will be by regular carrier and not private charter but that hasn't shut up the environmentalists, either.

Argues Garman, "He should be picking up an award for green hypocrisy, especially since he could have picked up this award by video linkup."

It's not easy being the "green" prince or his spokesman.

Says Harverson, "He is a bit low-hanging fruit though for the people who don't agree with him … a very easy target. We recognize that, so our job is to explain everything we do."

Over and over again.