Prince Albert of Monaco: Global Warming Is For Real

WASHINGTON (Nov. 30) -- Prince Albert of Monaco today waded into the controversy over the hacked e-mails that have given fresh ammo to climate change skeptics, saying, "There is no more room for doubt."

The prince, who heads a private environmental foundation that works on issues related to climate change, said the tempest over the e-mails was predictable. But it doesn't change what he sees as the fundamental reality.

"On every subject of scientific nature there is some controversy. There can be opposing arguments or opposing theories. [And] this will be reviewed," said the head of the world's second-smallest country. "But I have been out in the field myself, and I can assure you there are signs already out there of the effects of climate change. You can argue on the intensity of it, on fluctuations on temperature, ... but one thing is for sure: It is happening and it is happening on a global scale."

The mild-mannered monarch, the son of the late American movie star Grace Kelly, said he had observed the effects of global warming firsthand on visits to the North and South Poles. He noted an Arctic glacier on the island of Spitsbergen north of Norway that an expedition led by his great-great-grandfather, Prince Albert I, photographed in 1906. By the time Albert II visited in 2006, the glacier had retreated 4.5 miles.

Such stark changes haven't convinced opponents of new regulation, who seized on the leaked e-mails from scientists at Britain's University of East Anglia. In them, researchers discuss suppressing data that doesn't jibe with other evidence of rising temperatures.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., a longtime climate change doubter who once headed the Senate committee overseeing environmental issues, has called for hearings. The university launched its own review.

Albert said that despite the controversy, for him the notion that the Earth is warming is "unquestionable. Challenging this data means agreeing to the sacrifice of future generations for our selfish comfort."

The prince spoke at the National Press Club shortly after giving the keynote speech at a weeklong summit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty that preserved the frozen continent for scientific research.

The speeches came a week before leaders of 192 nations gather in Copenhagen for a U.N. summit on ways to cut greenhouse emissions widely blamed for rising global temperatures. President Obama is expected to attend even though Congress hasn't acted on the so-called cap and trade legislation he favors as a way to curb carbon dioxide and other pollutants.

"Alas," Albert said, "it is unlikely this meeting will achieve the goals it had hoped for."