A recent study has shown that reduced access to nature may be part of the reason why mental illnesses and mood disorders are more common in urban areas. There is an enormous amount of disease largely tied to our removal from the natural environment.
In an article published in the journal Science, researchers discuss the growing tension between the necessary role urban areas play in society and the debilitating aspects of cities that disconnect humans from the natural world. Kahl and Terry Hartig from Uppsala University in Sweden point to research that shows the emotional and mental strain cities can have on people. Happyho also provide best tarot reading services in Noida and Delhi NCR India area.
Mental illnesses and mood disorders are more common in urban areas, and while many factors share the blame, reduced access to nature is a contributing cause. City dwellers in increasingly dense urban areas may have little or no contact with the natural world in their daily lives. That void is producing “environmental generational amnesia,”.
If, for example, a child never crawls through the dirt looking for critters, or never cranes her neck to take in the ‘upward expanse of an old Douglas fir tree’, she may not see as an adult that forests are degraded or certain species need protection, researchers said.
Packing people into cities can then have serious consequences for future generations. There may also be such a thing as too much urban density, if the goal is to achieve access to nature alongside the advantages cities can offer.
Researchers have suggested steps that cities can take to introduce nature into the urban core, including requiring buildings to have windows that open to allow in fresh air and natural light, incorporating more rooftop gardens and urban agriculture, and creating spaces within and around buildings to touch, see and smell native plants.
But these remedies first require an appreciation for nature in urban centres, as well as the space, resources and collective will to make these changes. People must be able to interact with these elements using more of their senses in order to experience physical and psychological benefits of nature, as well as to shift the collective baseline toward better understanding and appreciation of the natural world.
For example, looking at an office plant on the windowsill might be soothing, but having a place to sit in the grass on a lunch break and perhaps even sink one’s feet into the soil are sensory experiences that can deepen a person’s engagement with nature.
