Natural Environments and Human Health. Alan W Ewert
agents such as traffic, visual disturbances, and litter. Other characteristics of natural environments that often have some direct correlations to positive health factors include higher air quality, modified temperatures, reduced levels of noise and signs of urban disturbances, and the presence of vegetation, water, beautiful scenery, and quiet. Both the literature and our own experiences often suggest to us, that it is a combination of these and other variables related to the environment that often provides us with a powerful antidote to the stress of modern-day life and influences our health status.
Whether it be the verdant healing gardens developed in ancient Babylon, the herbs and plants gathered by our ancestors for medicinal purposes, or the vision quests practiced by First Nations, all the way to the development of greenspaces or nature preserves in our modern urban environments, societies of all eras and regions have recognized that natural environments play an important role in the fostering of positive health benefits. Whether these benefits are accrued through a quiet walk along a stream, or hiking up a challenging mountain, enjoying the camaraderie of friends out for a picnic in a municipal park, or even breathing in the air while in a cool, green forest, health comes to us, while in nature, and through nature.
This book is about the myriad of ways that nature and natural environments serve to foster health. Whether the natural environment provides a setting, an experience or some intrinsic quality, in this book we examine the long relationship people have had with natural settings, how this relationship can result in improved health, some of the theories and concepts that frame our thinking regarding the human/nature interaction, and how research has informed our thinking about how natural landscapes impact our health.
In addition, we have examined how different groups have responded to the health/natural environments interaction. For example, indigenous and First Nations peoples have used natural medicines and healing rituals involving natural landscapes for thousands of years, with this traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) carrying over into modern times. In another example, we examine the role that children and different life stages play in health-related issues and natural environments.
Along with issues of life stage or membership in a particular group, either historical or contemporary, we believe that the health-related benefits that natural environments provide to people can be augmented by the development of specifically designed programs or experiences. Towards this end, structured programs, such as those offered through organizations engaged in adventure education, and similar types of programs can be used to promote the health benefits associated with natural environments.
Finally, providing evidence-based knowledge and then developing subsequent policies that support the use of natural environments for enhancing health is an ongoing process. Like other research processes, developing research efforts specifically targeted towards understanding the health/natural environment connection often face a number of issues that need to be addressed. In addition, evidence-based policy needs to account for the myriad of situations and needs of the variety of people who engage in natural environments, whether deliberately or vicariously for health-related outcomes. As suggested by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote at the beginning of this Preface, what often matters most is what individuals do with their ‘spare time’. For many, that spare time is often spent in a natural environment and increasingly, for health-related outcomes.
Alan W. Ewert Denise S. Mitten Jillisa R. Overholt
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to extend a special thanks to Emma McCann from CABI for guiding this book through the many travails of publishing a textbook, as well as to Brian Forist (PhD student at Indiana University) and Chiara D’Amore, Janet Ady and Betsy Wier (PhD students at Prescott College) for their diligent assistance in helping us with a number of different technical and literature tasks associated with this book.
1
Overview
To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.
Helen Keller
Why This Book and Why Now
Today, literally hundreds of millions of people around the globe will engage in some form of contact with natural environments through work, living circumstances, or play and recreation. Some of these contacts will be in the form of high adventure activities, such as white-water rafting or mountain climbing. Others will involve a quiet walk down a winding path or along a wind-swept coastline. Still others will engage in a natural environment through tending to their garden, woodlot, or a local municipal park. In the US alone, there are about 300 million annual visits to national parks with nearly 50% of all Americans participating in at least one form of outdoor recreation in 2010. Many of these participants did so for health-related reasons or incidentally received health benefits while recreating (Outdoor Foundation, 2011). And for many Indigenous and First Nations peoples, the natural environment has provided and continues to provide a critical core to the very rhythm and existence of their lives, with some people practicing subsistence living by attending to the various cycles and rhythms of the natural environment. Many others, some by choice and many without choice, live close to the land in countries where securing water, for example, consumes hours of their days. Without a doubt, there are countless ways in which people and natural environments meet, whether for needed resources such as water, minerals, animals and plants, or simply the enjoyment of interacting, within a leisure or recreational context, with the natural setting.
Whatever their underlying needs, values, and reasons, the interaction between human health and natural environments involves a myriad of experiences, settings, and beliefs and it is this myriad that constitutes the subject of Natural Environments and Human Health. This interaction in terms of health and well-being has never been more important than in this current time. Both individually and collectively, health has become a significant issue of concern for much of the world’s population. Some of these health concerns are because of toxins in nature and others are because of humans’ lack of contact with nature, particularly in many Westernized countries (Pergams and Zaradic, 2008). A sample of the broad reach of these issues involves both psychological as well as ecological factors. Table 1.1 lists major health concerns that are related to natural environments, loosely divided into two major categories: Ecology-based and Physiological/Psychological-based. Thus, one way of thinking about the intersection of natural environments and human health is the way in which the connection impacts health and well-being. Humans’ relationship with the environment is complex and multidimensional. Humans impact the environment and the environment affects humans. In this book a systems approach or lens is used, meaning that everything in the universe (and perhaps beyond) is connected to and affects everything else, and that everything known to humans is in effect one living system of which humans are a part.
Table 1.1. Major health concerns related to natural environments.
| Ecology-based | Physiological/Psychological-based |
| Pesticides | Levels of physical activity |
| Air/water quality | Perceived general health |
| Toxic contaminants | Levels of obesity |
| Ozone depletion/acid rain | Sense of well-being |
| Excessive noise | Quality of life |
| Loss of biodiversity | Mood |
| Environmental degradation | Rates of recuperation |
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