Prince Charles urges rainforest protection

LONDON, May 28 (UPI) -- Britain's Prince Charles said in a London speech preserving the world's rainforests is the key to fighting climate change.

Speaking at the Nobel Laureate Symposium at St. James Palace in London Wednesday, the prince said preserving rainforests should be vital to any attempts to combat climate change, The Times of London said.

"Solving climate change is a precondition to ensuring security, and without adequately addressing tropical deforestation we cannot have an answer to climate change," Prince Charles said. "It is that simple: saving the rainforests is not an option. It is actually an absolute necessity."

The prince called for rainforest preservation to be a key topic in December at the climate change talks in the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

The prince said the ongoing destruction of the world's rainforests limits the natural absorption of greenhouse gases while also potentially altering global precipitation patterns, triggering drought and famine, The Times reported.