King Charles III

This is an amazingly good book about humanity and its (lost) relationship with nature, about ecology on a deep level and about how we are going to live our future.

While I did know that the Prince of Wales was very involved in all sorts of charities, I did not know at all that he had actually built up such a deep and developed understanding of the world as he is demonstrating in this highly recommendable book.
He initially calls for a revolution - an internal revolution of our mindsets geared show more towards global and local sustainability. While he is highly critical about modernity (and apparently everything that happened after Descartes) he is apparently highly conservative. From this starting point he manages to draw an almost utopian plan for a better, durable and more harmonic world. This encompasses many areas of life, especially architecture, agriculture and urban planning. His ideas comprise concepts and patterns that are typically thought to be radically ecological: deep ecology, strong sustainability, spirituality, indigenous people's cultures, strong criticism of capitalism and economic growth and many more. The authors manage to actually bring together the green environmental movement with conservative, traditional values. I greatly appreciate this!

Who would have thought that? This book makes sense on a deep level and can be read by anyone who is interested in ecology, sustainability, environmental protection, tree-hugging or simply by anyone who has grown weary of the promises of economic growth and corporate power. Anyone who feels that the world in which we live is foul on deep level, unsustainable and artificial will find ideas how it can be improved. This book is well written, exciting to read and radical on a fundamental level.

One would hope that this book finds a lot of readers! show less

Although at times he takes on the patrician tone of a monarch lecturing to his recalcitrant subjects, overall Charles comes across as someone who has given a great deal of thought to his place in the world, and how he can best make use of his bully pulpit to make it a better place.

He starts with a fairly standard description of the challenges facing the environment (climate change, pollution, deforestation, mass extinction, etc.), then makes the case that the underlying cause is our show more disassociation from Nature. He goes through the history of what he calls "harmony" and essentially amounts to a rejection of the mechanization typifying the modern worldview.

Along the way we learn about his deep-seated hatred for modern architecture, which perhaps isn't too surprising for someone who splits his time between living in a castle and living in a palace (technically Clarence House is neither, but you get the point).

I listened to audiobook version, which he narrated himself, and he comes across as deeply caring about the holistic approach to sustainability, and provides lots of examples of his personal involvement without being too self congratulatory, which isn't easy to pull off. Some of his ideas are a bit too traditional or conservative for my taste, and I think that he downplays some of the benefits of modern technology to potentially solve some of our problems, but overall there are a lot worse things for him to focus on. show less

A richly illustrated book discussing HRH's views on architecture. On the surface, it seems that he has very little good to say about modern architecture, but this is not the case at all. The Prince sets forth solid principles of architecture and building that he feels would help new buildings fit more harmoniously with existing buildings and the natural (and man made) landscape around them. As a person who has restored two houses and is working on his third (albeit on the other side of the show more pond) it is refreshing to read views that value past architectural accomplishments as well as the techniques and materials that made those accomplishments possible. show less

Like most people, my exposure to Charles, Prince of Wales, has been limited to the occasional glance at the cover of a tabloid. He seems to fill his life with photo opportunities at official ceremonies with the occasional hunting excursion in a kilt. But recently, my opinion of Prince Charles changed when I found this very short book.

The book is only 35 pages -- and even includes many pictures. Definitely, it can be read in less than half an hour. But the message in this book is one that you show more will want to discuss and reflect upon long after you finish reading this. In 2011, Prince Charles gave a keynote address at a global food conference in Washington, DC. Apparently, in between those official ceremonies and hunting trips, Charles has been a champion of sustainable food production. His speech addresses many of the issues plaguing our planet regarding food, including soil depletion, water loss, and the use of pesticides. The bottom line is that we are creating a situation that will have a huge impact on the global economy and the everyone's quality of life. One of the points that really stuck with me is that the wealthy will always be able to get access to healthy food and clean water and will be able to live in areas that aren't ruined with chemicals. But it is the world's poor who will be hungry, thirsty and unhealthy from these food practices. Given that Prince Charles is definitely among the ranks of the world's wealthy, I am impressed that he has taken on this noble cause. Definitely a book that everyone should read. show less