The Green Ages explores medieval innovations in sustainability, offering lessons for modern ecological challenges. The reviewer highlights both the inspiring examples and the complexities of applying medieval models to contemporary society.
In The Green Ages, Annette Kehnel examines how medieval societies approached sustainability through practices like communal living and resource management. The reviewer finds the examples engaging but notes the challenges in adapting such models to today's world, emphasizing the need for a powerful ideology to drive significant change.
Quick quotes
There were times when we humans knew the limitations of our planet better than we do now.
The prosperity of medieval monasteries was underpinned by the carefully regulated nature of their communal life.
If Diogenes or Francis of Assisi preached what we would today call minimalism, it was as one part of visionary philosophies that set them in opposition to all the values of contemporary society.