Of the many disagreements between King Charles III and Donald Trump - and there are many - the biggest is on an issue the White House has apparently tried to put on mute: the planet's continued viability as a place for humans to live.
For over 50 years, as the Prince of Wales, Charles made a habit of showing up to UN summits and smaller gatherings to politely suggest that maybe we should stop setting the atmosphere on fire. The royal visit to Washington will be no exception. The Guardian understands the king will not be silent on green issues, despite nervous glances from the British government. Sources say Charles is likely to bring up the environment in public and private, and civil society groups have been whispering with the palace about potentially slipping some climate and nature references into his speech to Congress on Tuesday afternoon.
Charles's environmental advocacy has never faced a more obdurate listener. Trump has basically declared war on the climate, pulling the US out of international climate agreements, stalling renewable energy progress, boosting coal, opening public lands to drilling, slashing nature protections, bullying other countries who want to take climate action, firing scientists, and scrubbing the word 'climate' from government communications like a particularly aggressive proofreader.
There is little common ground between the UK and US on climate and environment, so the UK's strategy has been to work around the problem at international forums rather than force a confrontation.
Charles is reportedly skilled at bringing up the topic diplomatically, which he'll likely attempt with Trump and other US government and business bigwigs. 'The king loves the natural world and understands that everything we have depends utterly on it,' said Ben Goldsmith, longtime environmental advocate and former chair of the Conservative Environment Network. 'So I'd be amazed if he doesn't raise the topic with President Trump.'
Robbie MacPherson, a Kennedy scholar at Harvard and former head of the UK parliament's all-party group on climate, said the king would also be reflecting his nation's views. 'People across the UK have chosen that a clean energy transition is their desired road to the future. The king should represent that view to foreign leaders, including those who think that rolling back on environment and clean energy action is the correct course.'
Will Trump listen? Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate adviser now at American University, isn't optimistic. 'Sadly, King Charles would be wasting his breath bringing up climate with Trump, but one hopes he features climate action prominently as an issue critical to public safety and global security.'
Goldsmith pointed out that US conservatives have a 'long and rich history of protecting America's natural treasures,' and that Trump's political hero Teddy Roosevelt created the national park system. 'Today, the states doing most for wildlife are arguably Florida and Texas, both of which are securing large areas of land for rewilding and permanent protection. If Trump wants to 'make America beautiful again,' which is the name of one of his recent pronouncements, some focus on nature would seem an obvious move.'
MacPherson was more hopeful, though for different reasons. 'Across America, the clean energy transition and action to protect nature is happening. A temporary shift in federal government delivery and blocking should not stop the long-lasting green special relationship shared between the UK and the US.'