#060 The Value of Reconnecting with Nature
Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast
Episode #60
The Value of Reconnecting with Nature
In 1950 less than 65 percent of Americans lived in cities. But presently nearly 83% of us live in or around a major city. And this trend is remarkably similar on a global scale. By 2050, it is projected that nearly 70% of the global population will live in urban areas.
Now there are a number of reasons for this transition. In fact there are many benefits to move into an urban area. However, while most people may gain something by such a move, we also loose something in that transition. Most people are already disconnected with the very things that sustain us. And urbanization is widening that gap.
If you want to learn more then listen to this episode called The Value of Reconnecting with Nature.
Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E60 which is called The Value of Reconnecting with Nature.
As I have already mentioned, there is a huge global trend toward urbanization. Now there are a couple of different reasons for this transition. One of the reasons is simply due to a natural increase in population. This is actually a significant reason for increased urbanization. But the other main cause is people simple moving out of rural areas.
Push and Pull Factors for Leaving Rural Areas
The decision to move is often a combination of things including various pull factors and well as push factors that drive people away from rural areas. None the less, migration to an urban area is influenced by economic growth, technological change and possibly even conflict and social disruption.
One of the main pull factors to urban areas is of course employment opportunities. This is because more industries are located in urban areas which of course offer a high wage relative to rural areas. Another important factor is accessibility to educational institutions where people can learn new skills which increases their employment opportunities. Finally, there are many more social functions and activities for entertainment which can be a big draw if you are not accustomed to such things.
Now on the other side of the coin, there are several factors that push people away from rural living. Things such as poor living conditions, lack of employment opportunities, poor availability of health care, lack of quality educational institutions, and various environmental changes such as droughts, floods, degradation of farmable land, and just simply the pressures of living a rural life.
Although, in one respect, due to the COVID 19 pandemic, more people than ever in developed countries now have the ability to work from home. Consequently, it matters little where they live. But this of course is not the case in less developed countries.
And one other additional factor supporting increased urbanization as I also pointed out in E59, is climate change.
As far as the impact of urbanization, it is sort of a mixed bag. Obviously thriving communities and cites are a big part of a prosperous national economy. The huge availability of human resources in close proximity tends to drive innovation and development in business, industry, science and technology. Availability of health care increase survival rates. Essential services such as fresh water and food are available.
Disadvantages to Urbanization
But there are also disadvantages.
There is of course significant air pollution in the city and that is what you get to breathe everyday.
Noise and light pollution. Now these are two of the things I notice the most when I am away from the cabin for business purposes. Depending on where I go to work, I often have to wear ear plugs at night in order to sleep. And one of the other things I miss the most is simply being able to see the stars.
There is of course over crowding. Consequently, there are traffic problems, longer lines at the supermarket, and endless waiting just to get any sort of services. And this of course increases your stress level. Additionally there is litter, increased incidence of health issues, high cost of living, homelessness, and waste management problems as well as other things.
Cities are also associated with higher rates of mental health problems relative to rural areas. Globally one in four people will experience some sort of mental health problem. But those in urban areas have a 40% higher risk of depression, 20% more anxiety, double the risk of schizophrenia, in addition to loneliness, isolation, and a higher suicide rate. And this does not take into account the non-stop sensory over load from population density, crowding, noise, smells, sights, disarray, pollution, and many other things.
What’s to Come of It?
Considering all the reasons for increased urbanization, and factoring in future climate migration, my first question is what’s to come of it?
On a personal level I think many of the things that attract people too urban areas are the very things that push me away. When I purchased my cabin property I had very specific priorities. But how I choose to live takes additional time, effort, forethought and planning than what most people are willing to undertake. The other true advantage for me is peace and quiet. When I am home, I rarely hear a man made sound unless a plane flies over.
But while there are many benefits for those that live the urban life, I also want to point out that 83% of our population is giving up something very vital. Study after study after study points to the benefits of spending time in nature.
One study out of the University of Michigan showed that participants that who walked in nature scored 20% higher on a memory test.
A Finnish study revealed that just spending 15 minutes in nature helped people to feel psychologically restored. Those results were increased when people spent time walking.
Another study showed that people exposed to natural light not only healed faster from spinal surgery but experienced less pain and needed fewer medications.
A Japanese study showed that women who spent 6 hours over a two day period walking in the woods boosted their white blood cell count and this affected lasted for about two weeks. So, spending time in nature strengthens your immune system.
Multiple studies have linked spending time in nature to improved mental health especially depression.
Spending time outside is also a great way in get exercise and loose some weight. Not to mention decreasing your stress level. But it also improves your ability to concentrate because it simply gives your mind a break from all the over stimulation.
And all of this just simply points to better mental health. Good mental health greatly improves people’s enjoyment levels, it improves our coping skills, our relationships, our ability to achieve things, and it even reduces our health problems. And I also think that good mental health improves our ability to build resilient, sustainable communities. And of course this is vital to building a sustainable future.
Over this past year I have thankfully been able to reduce my commuting time by 50%. That means I spend more time at home enjoying the peace and quiet. After spending a day in the city, I drive home, get out of my truck, and it is so quiet my ears start ringing. But then again, maybe they are ringing because of all the noise I had to listen to all day long. At any rate, I often say to my friends that if more people could spend time in a place similar to where I live, I think the world would be a much happier place.
A number of my friends have repeatedly encouraged me to visit New York City. I have told them I’d rather be kayaking in Alaska and have no desire to visit New York City regardless of the cultural aspect. Furthermore, being in a remote place has more value to me anyway.
Turns out I am not the only one that thinks that. In a survey of 4,515 U.K. residents, people reported more connection with nature and felt far more restored after visiting rural and coastal areas than what they felt after spending time in urban green spaces. Nature preserves and protected habitats were also considered more beneficial as opposed to areas of lower biodiversity. Furthermore, it has been noted that people who watched nature videos containing a diverse mix of flora and fauna reported lower anxiety and improved mood quality relative to those who watched videos with very little biodiversity.
Personally I think part of the problem in modern culture is that we are constantly distracted. We have busy lives, rush from one thing to the next, we are constantly multi-tasking, and we are over loaded with personal and work obligations. We are constantly pelted with emails, voicemails, texting messaging, and social media. As if that is not enough, we watch the news, which is about 80% bad news and then we take in network television and movies that are filled with angry people taking out their revenge. All of this constant stimulation and exposure to violence cause further stress, causes us to worry, and adds absolutely no value to our lives.
Now you do have to know that I have not watched network television for over 20 years. The only reason I even take in the news is that I want to somewhat keep up with world events because of my love of travel. But even with what little world news I take in I even get tired of that but it is so easy to get sucked in.
So recently, I decided that every time I was tempted to check on world events, I would read a science or nature article. Or I would take advantage of my digital National Geographic subscription. Instead of watching a movie, I would watch a documentary and learn something interesting. Just recently I watch a documentary which was called The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, which is located in New Mexico. This culture spent about 250 years building an enormous complex of structures with walls that were in perfect alignment with the phases of the sun and moon.
This captivated my interest so I read several articles on why the sun and moon cycle through the sky with changing positions depending on the time of year or the time of month. Then I re-learned the names of common constellations and how to find Polaris, which is commonly known as the north star, and why it is used for navigation. Over a period of a week I learned so many interesting new things. I considered it time well spent. I had gained some further knowledge of the natural world instead of further knowledge about who had killed who this week.
For me, it is really amazing how so many people are completely out of touch with nature. For example, there was an earthquake that rumbled through Los Angeles just before dawn in 1994. It caused a city wide power outage and a total blackout. Many startled residents stumbled outside only to see this mysterious cloud overhead. People started calling local emergency centers and even a local observatory. Turns out that mysterious cloud was the Milky Way, which is the very galaxy we call home.
I think it is safe to say that it is difficult to respect something when you are totally disconnected from it. Furthermore, it is difficult to value something that you know nothing about.
For example, if you read about the problem of plastic pollution in the ocean then you have learned about plastic pollution in the ocean. But take it a bit further. Volunteer to do a beach clean up day and spend all day bagging up plastic trash off the beach. When you spend an entire day doing this only to see at the end of the day that the beach barely looks any better, then you have a personal knowledge of the problem of plastic pollution. Now you value the magnitude of the problem and most likely you will make effects not to use so much plastic.
There was a time when I used to work a lot with a hospital in the North Myrtle Beach area. During my off time, I would drive up the coast into North Carolina and go to my favorite spot to go kayaking. I would get into the intercostal waterway right by this old growth oak tree. It was somewhat isolated and I rarely met up with anyone else. One year I returned to that spot only to find a huge new condominium complex. All I can say is that if you spend a lot of time outdoors, as I do, and then see some beautiful place destroyed by development, it makes you angry. I had no appreciation for the new spa and condo complex that now sits where the 400 year old oak tree used to be.
But, as I said, it is hard for people to respect something that they are disconnected from. What truly needs to happen, more than ever before, is that we need to reconnect with, and learn to respect the one thing that will sustain us.
There are numerous ways to learn a new appreciation for the natural world. It just takes some time and effort. While it may be difficult for most people to understand the depth and breadth of the ramifications of climate change, or understand the potential health risk of GMOs, there is no reason why all of us cannot increase our respect for the natural world.
Much of the time it just requires slowing down a bit and just taking a walk outside. If you do not know what kind of flower you are looking at, then figure it out. If you don’t know what type of tree you are sitting under, figure it out. See if you can guess the age of the tree. Measure its circumference. Learn the life cycle, how big they get, what type of wood it is, what are its uses. Just as I did with learning some constellations, and how to find the North Star, it will actually enrich your knowledge and you will be happy that you learned something new.
For example, if you took the time to read and learn about coral, the life cycle they have, why coral is important to the ecosystem, what cause coral to bleach, and what would happen if all the coral in the world were to die off, I can tell you that this new knowledge would give you a lot more respect for the oceans and how important they are.
And furthermore, the next time you plop down in front of the television, instead of watching yet another worthless TV show, watch a nature documentary or something produced by National Geographic.
Now if you want to learn something really cool, start reading about the importance of peat bogs. Seriously, they are very interesting.
Once you start to appreciate the enormous complexity, and even the fragility of nature, you will begin to see how everything is truly interconnected and how vital it is to preserve what we have. And if you are not yet convinced, go back and listen to E58 Twelve Unexpected Consequences of Climate Change, and you will see how so many things in our natural world is in a delicate balance.
But why is it that we are so disconnected from nature. How do we explain the loss of reference to nature even in our collective imagination and culture. What explains our weakening connection to the natural world?
According to studies that I reviewed, this trend started to become apparent after the 1950s. The first thing that most people would be tempted to point too is this trend of increased urbanization. However, that is actually not the underlying cause. If you look at urbanization rates in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and compare the first half of the 20th century to the latter half, the rate of urbanization did not change.
However, what most studies have revealed is that changes in technology is what is driving our continued disconnection from the natural world. In the 1950s there was a huge increase in television being the most popular source of entertainment. Video games first came on the scene in the 1970s and are still a popular means of entertainment. Now the internet consumes an enormous amount of our time. The average person spends 2 hours and 25 minutes per day on the internet.
I distinctly remember when I was growing up in Tennessee, during the summer when we were out of school, my mother would often kick us out of the house and tell us not to come home until supper. Now I am sure she did that because there was four of us and that was part of her plan for improved sanity. But, the point being is that we had no choice but to find ways to entertain ourselves. Sitting in front of the TV was not an option. We did not even own video games or any other electronic gadget for that matter. So, we spent time in the forest, playing in the creek, fishing, and finding numerous other things to do.
Nowadays, the average American spends 90% of their time indoors.
Believe it or not I am old enough to remember when most people did not even have a telephone. But I also spent my time in rural Georgia and Tennessee. If you really needed to talk to someone you simply drove to their house. What this means for me is that I’ve seen this huge evolution in technology. What that does for me is that I am still somewhat disconnected from it.
When I purchased my cabin property, I did not even have cell phone service for the first 15 years. I did not have satellite internet installed until 2 years ago. A great deal of the time when I am home, my cell phone is turned off. I do not power up the internet unless I need to use it for something specific. When I am finished, I unplug it. And because of where and how I live, it is so easy to disconnect once I am home.
But when we spend 90% of our time indoors and we spend an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes a day on the internet, it is easy to see why we are loosing our appreciation for the natural world. It is easy to see why some people are concerned about this strange cloud in the night sky which just so happens to be the Milky Way.
But what you have to understand is that a connection to nature strongly predicts pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. A connection to nature is vital for learning, practicing, and teaching the principles and value of a sustainable life. Aside from the obvious health benefits of spending time in nature, when you get out there and learn something new, you exercise your brain which helps to improve your cognitive functions, your ability to concentrate, your attention to detail, memory recall and problem solving, reduces your chances of developing dementia. Learning new things also gives you a sense of accomplishment and boost your confidence in your own capabilities.
But at the rate we are going, where will the future environmentalist come from? Who will actually pass on the teachings of how and why to respect nature, how it sustains us, how we depend on it for our survival. After all, if 90% of us live in urban areas and we spend 90% of our time indoors, how is it that we are going to learn the value of the natural world.
So don’t forget that nature is worth paying attention to and learning about because it will help to awaken your curiosity, appreciation, and respect for the very thing that sustains us and the very thing we can not longer afford to ignore. So take the time to learn something new about the natural world and then teach it to someone else. Because that will help foster a community of people that want a sustainable future.
In closing, I want to leave you with a quote from Confucious:
If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees. If your plan is for 100 years, educate children.
This if your host Patrick signing off. Until next week, always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future.
Resources
Urbanization: Trends, Causes, Effects
Americans say there’s not much appeal to big-city living. Why do so many of us live there? , published by Washington Post
Advantages and Disadvantages of Urbanization
How the City Affects Mental Health
Nurtured by Nature, American Psychological Association
How Modern Life Became Disconnected From Nature, Greater Good Magazine
