 | |
| Author | Charles III Tony Juniper Ian Skelly |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Harper |
| Pages | 336 |
| Awards | Nautilus Book Award |
| ISBN | 0061731358 |
| OCLC | 419857221 |
Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World is a 2010 book written by Charles III (then Prince of Wales), with Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly. The book focuses on the world's environment which includes climate change, architecture and agriculture. The book has been translated into many different languages. There is also a children's edition of Harmony.
Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World received favourable reviews.
The International Making Cities Livable Council[ who? ] stated, "Harmony is truly a wise book. It shows how all the areas the Prince has addressed in the past – architecture and planning, agriculture, education, the arts, healthcare, society and economy – have all suffered as a result of our disconnect from Nature. Through outstanding examples and best practices, he shows how each field is beginning to heal through the exemplary work of individuals and groups around the globe." [1]
In a review in The Guardian , Rowan Moore said that the book contains a number of "amateurish" mistakes, and is also inconsistent in its use of science—embracing scientific evidence when it supports a belief in climate change, but ignoring scientific evidence that casts doubt on alternative medicine. [2]
In 2018, Edzard Ernst wrote that "Harmony is full of praise for even the most absurd forms of alternative therapies and bogus diagnostic tests." In Ernst's book More Good Than Harm? The Moral Maze of Complementary and Alternative Medicine he and ethicist Kevin Smith call Charles "foolish and immoral" and "conclude that it is not possible to practice alternative medicine ethically". Ernst further claimed that the private secretary of the then-Prince contacted the vice chancellor of Exeter University to investigate Ernst's complaints against the Smallwood Report which Charles had commissioned in 2005. While Ernst was "found not to be guilty of any wrong-doing, all local support at Exeter stopped, which eventually led to my early retirement." [3]
The book received a Nautilus Book Award in 2011. [4] In 2010, a documentary narrated by Charles aired on the NBC network. The documentary was directed by Academy Award and Directors Guild Award nominee Stuart Sender. [5] [6] The New York Times called it "breathtaking and beautifully filmed." [7] The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, receiving positive reviews. [8]
Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability or evidence of effectiveness. Unlike modern medicine, which employs the scientific method to test plausible therapies by way of responsible and ethical clinical trials, producing repeatable evidence of either effect or of no effect, alternative therapies reside outside of mainstream medicine and do not originate from using the scientific method, but instead rely on testimonials, anecdotes, religion, tradition, superstition, belief in supernatural "energies", pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, fraud, or other unscientific sources. Frequently used terms for relevant practices are New Age medicine, pseudo-medicine, unorthodox medicine, holistic medicine, fringe medicine, and unconventional medicine, with little distinction from quackery.
Magnetic therapy is a pseudoscientific alternative medicine practice involving the weak static magnetic field produced by a permanent magnet which is placed on the body. It is similar to the alternative medicine practice of electromagnetic therapy, which uses a magnetic field generated by an electrically powered device. Magnet therapy products may include wristbands, jewelry, blankets, and wraps that have magnets incorporated into them.
Charles III is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.
Bach flower remedies (BFRs) are solutions of brandy and water—the water containing extreme dilutions of flower material developed by Edward Bach, an English homeopath, in the 1930s. Bach claimed that the dew found on flower petals retains the supposed healing properties of that plant. Systematic reviews of clinical trials of Bach flower solutions have found no efficacy beyond that of a placebo.
Harmony, in music, is the use of simultaneous pitches, or chords.
Simon Lehna Singh, is a British popular science author, theoretical and particle physicist. His written works include Fermat's Last Theorem, The Code Book, Big Bang, Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial and The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets. In 2012 Singh founded the Good Thinking Society, through which he created the website "Parallel" to help students learn mathematics.
Craniosacral therapy (CST) or cranial osteopathy is a form of alternative medicine that uses gentle touch to feel non-existent rhythmic movements of the skull's bones and supposedly adjust the immovable joints of the skull to achieve a therapeutic result. CST is a pseudoscience and its practice has been characterized as quackery. It is based on fundamental misconceptions about the anatomy and physiology of the human skull and is promoted as a cure-all for a variety of health conditions.
Edzard Ernst is a retired British-German academic physician and researcher specializing in the study of complementary and alternative medicine. He was Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, the world's first such academic position in complementary and alternative medicine.
Energy medicine is a branch of alternative medicine based on a pseudo-scientific belief that healers can channel "healing energy" into a patient and effect positive results. The field is defined by shared beliefs and practices relating to mysticism and esotericism in the wider alternative medicine sphere rather than any sort of unified terminology, leading to terms such as energy healing or vibrational medicine being used as synonymous or alternative names. In most cases there is no empirically measurable energy involved: the term refers instead to so-called subtle energy. Practitioners may classify the practice as hands-on, hands-off, and distant where the patient and healer are in different locations. Many schools of energy healing exist using many names: for example, biofield energy healing, spiritual healing, contact healing, distant healing, therapeutic touch, Reiki or Qigong.
Anthony Juniper is a British campaigner, writer, sustainability adviser and environmentalist who served as Executive Director of Friends of the Earth, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. He was Vice Chair of Friends of the Earth International from 2000 to 2008.
The bibliography of Charles III, King of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth Realms, is a list of approximately three dozen works which the King has written, co-written, illustrated or narrated, and includes works for which he has written a foreword, introduction or preface.
Sir Ian McColl Kennedy is a British academic lawyer who has specialised in the law and ethics of health. He was appointed to chair the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority in 2009.
The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health (FIH) was a charity run by King Charles III founded in 1993. The foundation promoted complementary and alternative medicine, preferring to use the term "integrated health", and lobbied for its inclusion in the National Health Service. The charity closed in 2010 after allegations of fraud and money laundering led to the arrest of a former official.
Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial is a 2008 book by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst. The book evaluates the scientific evidence for alternative medicines such as acupuncture, homeopathy, herbal medicine, and chiropractic, and briefly covers 36 other treatments. It finds that the scientific evidence for these alternative treatments is generally lacking. The authors concluded that homeopathy is merely a placebo.
Harriet A. Hall was an American family physician, U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, author, science communicator, and skeptic. She wrote about alternative medicine and quackery for the magazines Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer and was a regular contributor and founding editor of Science-Based Medicine. She wrote under her own name or used the pseudonym "The SkepDoc". After retiring as a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, Hall was a frequent speaker at science and skepticism related conventions in the US and around the world.
Michael David Dixon, (Hon) is an English general practitioner and current Head of the Royal Medical Household. He is Chair of The College of Medicine and Integrated Health and Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster.
The College of Medicine (CoM) is a United Kingdom-based organisation founded in October 2010 that grew out of The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health after it was shut down due to accounting fraud. It is chaired by Michael Dixon, a former director of the Foundation. It promotes alternative medicine.
The Smallwood Report, officially entitled The Role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the NHS: An Investigation into the Potential Contribution of Mainstream Alternative Therapies to Healthcare in the UK, was a 2005 report promoting the use of so-called "alternative medicine" in Britain's taxpayer funded National Health Service, as a cost-effective and efficacious alternative to evidence-based medicine. The report was written by economist Christopher Smallwood, commissioned by Charles, Prince of Wales, and funded by disgraced Tory politician Dame Shirley Porter. The report recommended that a number of treatments be made available on the NHS, including acupuncture, homoeopathy, manipulation therapies and herbal remedies. Graeme Catto wrote the introduction. Smallwood is an economist with no background in healthcare.
A Scientist in Wonderland: A Memoir of Searching for Truth and Finding Trouble is an autobiography by Edzard Ernst. Ernst writes about being a homeopathic patient in childhood and, later, a homeopathic practitioner. His doubts about the practice eventually lead him to reject it, and he becomes an outspoken critic of the alternative modality.
Ian Skelly is a British writer, continuity announcer and BBC radio presenter. Born in Manchester, he grew up in West Lancashire and studied at Birmingham City University.