Red-Faced Green Prince

From across the pond-- another embarrassment for the Prince of Wales, as the "eco-friendly" prince hires a private jet for a 500-mile trip to the country.

Royal sources confirmed that Prince Charles recently utilized a Royal Flight HS125 at RAF Lyneham near his Highgrove home to take him, wife Camilla and a small entourage of aides to Aberdeen.

His flight put him on a collision course with environmentalists who estimated the flight would have a carbon footprint of 15,000 kg per passenger. Analysts Best Foot Forward said a commercial flight would have resulted in a far less damaging carbon emission of 435kg per person as it would have had more passengers.

Travelling by car would more than half that figure to 180kg and going by train via London would be the greenest option with a estimated carbon emission of 60kg.

Joss Garman, a campaigner for green pressure group, Plane Stupid said: "This is the third time in as many months that he has taken a private jet when he could have taken a more environmentally sustainable means of transport. "It is frustrating and disappointing that someone who styles himself as a green leader and should be leading an example, behaves in such a manner when everyone else is doing their best to cut emissions. This is exactly the type of unnecessary flight that we should be cutting down on."

Charles vowed last December to "substantially" curb his reliance on gas-guzzling transport in favor of scheduled commercial flights and train travel.

And a month later he turned down a private jet and took 20 members of his staff business class on a British Airways jet to New York to collect an award marking his environmental awareness.

In his speech, Charles said climate change "was a war we simply have to win". And he was applauded when he added: "It is surely the duty of each and every one of us to find out what we can do to make the situation better." Nonetheless green campaigners and Environment Minister David Miliband said he could have accepted the award by video link.

In February, though, he reverted back to his "eco-unfriendly" ways by hiring a 140-seater private plane to fly his 20-member entourage to the Gulf region. During the trip, Camilla came under fire-- hold onto your hats-- for flying a pair of stilettos from Highgrove to the Gulf after she realized she had landed in Kuwait without them. In the end, she didn't even wear the shoes.

Carbon footprints-- a measure of our impact on the environment-- are calculated on the amount of polluting carbon dioxide produced by everything from turning on a light to taking a flight.