In 2008, Prince Charles, heir apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom, gave the Presidential Lecture in Jakarta, Indonesia. He chose to focus on the environment, highlighting the plight of the world’s tropical rainforests: These forests…act as giant global utilities, providing essential public services to the whole of humanity. They are…the very lungs of the planet… The rainforests of the world also provide the livelihoods of more than a billion of the poorest people on this Earth. In simple terms, the rainforests, which encircle the world, are our very life-support system—and we are on the verge of switching it off.