BMC Public Health

While reading different essays addressing the topic of nature, I came to the conclusion that they all shared the idea that being outside can make an impact in everyone no matter if you believe you only belong in a city or forest because it can bring you serenity and show you all the amazing things you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else. In Wendell Berry’s essay “An Entrance to the Woods,” he states that people can use the quiet of the woods to forget all their problems. Berry wrote “One is that, though I am here in body, my mind and my nerves too are not yet altogether here. We seem to grant to our high-speed roads and our airlines the rather thoughtless assumption that people can change places as rapidly as their bodies can be transported.” Nature has a way to transport ones mind and spirit elsewhere while the body is left behind on earth as we travel deep into thought. Adding on to that idea, the essay “A City Person Encountering Nature” by Maxine Hong Kingston the author explains that nature is a giver of peace and patience with its slow cycles that may frustrate people, but help keep a sane mind. Society is fast paced, making everyone feel that they need to keep the same pace in order to get things done, but we don't realize that although our bodies are moving and pushing, our minds are exhausted and cannot keep up with the fast pace. Kingston wrote “Preferring the city myself, I can better discern natural phenomena when books point them out; I also need to verify

First, it felt slightly odd to read about a city other than New York City in a Macaulay Seminar class because most, if not all, readings I have read in such a class discuss a topic in the context of New York City; nevertheless, reading about Chicago, another major American city, and its comparison with St. Louis, were refreshing. Second, this is the first time that I was exposed to the “first nature vs. second nature” concept, which I found insightful and somewhat surprising. I began to ruminate on the aspects of New York City people assume natural that are in fact artificial. Immediately, the salt marshes near the John F. Kennedy airport in Queens came to mind. According to NYC Parks, the marshes serve to “absorb fertilizer, improve water quality, and reduce erosion,” which can be considered as, using Cronon’s phrase, “natural advantages.” However, they have clearly been positioned and altered in a way that is aesthetically pleasing. In this instance, the presence of human intervention exists, yet many people would be inclined to consider the park “natural.” Perhaps this is how people in the 19th century viewed the railroads. Lastly, the following questions might be worth discussing: in today’s world, given the prolific human activity, what is considered first nature and second nature? Can there even be a third nature or

Nature has always been a source of inspiration for human beings. In the natural beauty around them, they have found peace, serenity, and a connection to something larger than themselves. At one time, humans were so intimately connected to nature that they could not live without being connected in a tangible way. They derived their basic needs directly from nature. In today 's society most are not as close as they once were with nature and its connection to humanity. Our food comes from boxes and for many, the closet they will get to nature is a small park or a nature program on their television set. Not only has man lost its connection to nature from a survival sense, they have become alienated from spiritual essence of the connection between man and nature. This research will support the thesis that man has become alienated from nature and in doing so has lost his sense of spiritual and connectedness with other human beings too. This

The beautiful blossoms that bloom in Californian spring, the summer daisies alongside the cooling lake, long after the summer the trees have lost their leaves entering autumn to fresh white snow out in the mountains. Nature is able to show us its true beauty without any falseness and modifications. After all, is it not ironic how people go to museums to look at paintings of colorful flowers, green hills, and clear water streams; those are beauties that can easily be observed in real life outside of the urban environment which are surrounded by them, or how people buy recordings of the calming sounds of nature, similar to what you would listen to at night in the woods or smell nature aromas of the candles. What we are doing is trying to mislead our minds and pretend to think that we are in the woods but are instead cornered inside our small, well-furnished, and full -with-technology apartment.

The people nowadays also abuse on what nature can provide to them. People are influenced by the western Culture, Man is more powerful and can have dominion over nature and that nature as they see become merely an instrument to satisfy human needs and wants. This kind of thinking or we can say attitude towards nature is called the “Anthropocentric Attitude”. Man reduce the value of nature as it is and it’s important because nature has made all things specifically for the sake of man and that the value of non-human things in nature is merely instrumental. An opposite thinking would be the Eastern Culture, for they value nature very well and they treat nature being one with them. This thinking or attitude is known as “Ecocentric

As I feel my eyes move across the screen of my newly installed television and the different types of scenery flash on and off my screen in an instant I know this movie's setting is in nature. What is nature? Most of your minds instantly think of trees and the woods and you are completely right. Nature is the woods, oceans, parks, rivers, lakes all around you. Nature is the outside world in which you are probably not in right now. In this paper, I am going to talk about the problem of Nature-Deficit Disorder and how we can change this problem in our homes, communities, states, nation, and untimely the world. I feel as though I am in nature when I watch my television but, in fact, I am not. This frame of mind can be detrimental and can briskly

Nature is everywhere, whether it's outside in the wild, or inside of the human body; it can be seen how it is part of nature that things such as animals and chemicals to be in harmony with each other. For example, when the economy receives a decrease of money, jobs are lost, resulting in unemployment that causes people's lives harder. Since money is an issue, people

Nature is often conceptualised in opposition to culture, and yet in practice they are inextricably linked. Discuss the ways in which images of nature within visual culture (art, design, cinema, etc) position nature in relation to a variety of urban themes. Intro: 800 words: Introduce the subject: Nature [noun]: The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations ~ Oxford dictionary.

According to Haile, “a forest-therapy base must meet certain criteria to be recognized by the government, including a scientific evaluation of its healing ability” (4). Since it has to be scientifically evaluated, that validates not only its effectiveness, but its ability to provide health benefits to practitioners. Anything that is scientifically evaluated can either be illustrated by physical or mental changes, and according to Haile, “the documented benefits to one’s health thus far include lowered blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and stress hormones” (2). There has been evidence collected to prove nature’s ability to heal and promote physical health. In an experiment conducted with college students, the presence of green spaces alone was able to provide significant health benefits. According to Reynolds, “when the students saw green spaces after the math stressor, their parasympathetic nervous system kicked in, lowering heart rates…” (2). This directly emphasizes the ability of nature to positively impact one’s health. In this case, the presence of green space was able to lower rapid heart rates that typically stem from stress and anxiety. These findings can be beneficial to adults in the workplace and students in school who are constantly

The research featured in this article was more focused on children but can be extended to adults as well. The article cited one experiment with hospital patients from the early 1970s and 80s. The results of this study were that patients who “gazed out at a natural scene were four times better off than those who faced a wall” (Alter). Additionally, many other studies have supported this claim. One study with children rated “naturalness” of families’ homes. This study found that those children “who had experienced hardship were distressed and lacking in self-esteem – except when they lived in more natural environments” (Alter). Likewise, adding nature into cities in the form of parks, trees, or green roofs, may help offset the risk factors mentioned earlier caused by living in the city. One South Korean study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research supported this claim. The study showed a strong effect of forest views on job satisfaction, and the participants with a forest view reported greater job satisfaction and lower levels of stress. The correlation between natural views and happiness was also reflected in an article by Rebecca Clay for the American Psychological Association. In the article, Clay discusses the results from a study done by

Public health is the science of protecting the safety and improving the health of communities through education, policy making and research for disease and injury prevention (publichealth.pitt.edu). The definition could mean different for every person. According to our reading, it is a course of action adopted and pursed by a government, party, statesman, or other individual or organization. Public health incorporates the interdisciplinary approaches of epidemiology, biostatistics and health service.

a. “Experiences in nature can result in a direct increase of various forms of happiness or well-being, in addition to increasing well-being via satisfaction of basic psychological needs” (p. 374).

The urban environment that I live in is my nature. My nature is filled with birds, cats, grass, and flowers. It may not be as abundant with mother nature’s resources compared to most places, but it still provides me with an experience of nature. Nature is not limited to just what we see anymore. However, you must use your senses to truly achieve the full experience of nature. In nature, you must smell the wonderful odors from the flowers, you should use your sight and observe the natural beauty of the ever-changing sky, touch the rough and jagged bark of the trees, and hear the spectacular songs of the birds that fly above you.

With so much progression in cities and urban areas, researchers are focusing their efforts to discover the effects of urbanization on the environment on a global scale. Since urbanization has been rapidly increasing over the past centuries, reintegrating natural systems within the cities and densely populated areas could mitigate the cities impact on the environment (Beatley). Rather than focusing on sustaining the nature on the outskirts of major cities, implementing greener areas within the urban population will increase the sustainability of these urban ecosystems. Reintroducing nature’s services throughout cities offer cost-effective improvements: cooling the environment, reducing runoff water and air pollution (Pincetl et al.).

The environmental challenges the world is facing today are greater and more complex than ever before. Soon over 9 billion people will inhabit and share the planet, increasing demands for natural resources such as food and water, and for energy and more infrastructure are pushing nature to its limits. Urbanization continues to increase with no indication of stopping anytime soon, which means that the world needs to begin planning and supporting a more sustainable growth of the worlds cities. Through the incorporation of nature into city planning, sprawling urban areas can be transformed into healthy and thriving environments that many people want to reside in. Nature can aid cities in more effectively and efficiently managing their waters, as the fastest growing sources of water pollution are derived from waste water and runoff. Implementing properly designed green space within cities can help manage the amount of runoff from city streets and buildings entering clean waterways, and “upstream natural areas can potentially save cities millions of dollars in drinking water treatment” (“The Biggest Environmental Challenges”). Street trees can reduce air pollution and provide shade thus reducing and absorbing heat in urban areas, this can potentially save lives through the reduction particles in the air that cause respiratory issues and heat related ailments.