Spend Time in Nature for Your Health?
For perhaps 99.99 percent of our time as a species on Earth, we lived outdoors in the natural environment. Might there be a health benefit to returning now and again, and surrounding ourselves with nature? That’s a question that urban planners have asked . “Are people living in greener areas healthier than people living in less green areas?” Should we put it in a park or another car park? “In a greener environment, people report fewer symptoms of illness and have better perceived general health. Also, people’s mental health appears to be better”—and by a considerable amount. Indeed, “assuming a causal relation between greenspace and health, 10% more greenspace in the living environment leads to a decrease in the number of symptoms that is comparable with a decrease in age by 5 years.” That is a big assumption, though. Still, you could imagine some potential mechanisms of why it could be. It could mean less air pollution, and air pollution is no joke. It is the fifth leading cause o