I never thought I’d see Prince Charles sat next to a frog on the sofa. Nor that I’d be at the same sort of press launch as a journalist from The Sun. How things have moved on: our royalty appearing in animated films on YouTube, and our page three newspaper embracing climate change.

I don’t know if it was the nice touch of getting the Prince to feature next to his fairytale alter-ego, as it were, the genius of the animators from The Golden Compass, or perhaps Daniel Craig’s entreating eyes on the screen – but the best of the papers and news channels turned up to see Tuesday’s unveiling of a 90-second film by the Prince’s Rainforests Project.

The frog’s a great little character that’s cute enough to keep us all watching while Charles says a few sombre words about deforestation and carbon emissions. And for those in the know, there’s the added subtlety that it’s a ‘species indicator’ for forests.

So let’s just hope that YouTubers get it – because there wasn’t much in the film on how forests help absorb carbon (perhaps I’ve got too used to the calibre of Green Futures readers), or even how viewers can help – except by signing up on www.rainforestSOS.org to kind of, ya know, show they care.

If they do make it to the site, I wonder if they’ll go for the fun stuff – the ‘mash up’ where they get to put their own face in the film – or opt for the more strenuous option B: read the hefty report on forest conservation and financing. Er, I know we at Green Futures would lap it up, but I can bet you which one most people would choose...

And I do wonder how much we can rely on YouTube as a magic button that immediately spreads good ideas as fast as swine flu. Call me a dinosaur (yes I’m still holding out against Facebook), but surely a site is only as interested in spreading the word as its users?