The Panda And The Prince

In this compelling book, the 'Panda Diplomat' reveals secret campaigns which helped convert business and government leaders over to the cause of the environment in the battle to save our planet...

The great conversion

It has been like a religious conversion. A previously sceptical world is at last converted over to the environment and the dangers posed by Climate Change and Global Warming.

The media is preaching the message, while business and government leaders are joining hands for the first time with the conservationists whom they used to condemn as troublesome eccentrics and enemies of growth.

But this conversion did not happen by accident and was a carefully planned and highly strategic communications approach, inspired by the enormous commitment of its leading "prophets."

These have ranged from the Nobel Prize and Academy Award winner Al Gore and the BBC's "Force of Nature" Sir David Attenborough, through his compelling global TV leadership over the past 30 years, to HRH the Duke of Edinburgh and two of his talented  WWF Vice-Presidents - the Canadian Maurice Strong, a "father figure" for the whole environment movement, and a largely unacknowledged but brilliant South African business leader called Dr. Anton Rupert, whose invention of the powerful but highly discreet 1001 Club helped change the face and the dynamism of world conservation.

Unbeknown to many people, it was the Duke of Edinburgh, in his role as longtime President of WWF International, who personally created and drove a heavily disputed plan which helped convert the leaders of the world's major religions to conservation.

And, in 2008, the people of Britain chose Sir David Atternborough as their most trusted and admired fellow citizen in recognition of his environmental leadership.

This book explains how a revolution in thinking has occurred, much of it created in a French speaking corner of Switzerland, which deserves recognition as the undeclared capital of the world environment movement.

It is full of fascinating stories, many revealed for the first time, involving an equally fascinating mix of exotic personalities and giving a unique perspective on the successful re-branding of a now famous global organisation.