Greenery and warbling birds are more than just pleasurable, they can be beneficial. Is that a bold statement? Well, there’s proof. Apparently we’re all biophiles, and harmony with nature is a condition for our happiness.
I sat down at my computer and tried to start this article. Some time later, growing increasingly frustrated and tense, I was still tinkering with the first sentence. In the end, I closed my laptop, donned my coat and hiking boots, and headed for the forest. As usual, I wandered off trail, cross-country, unhurriedly seeking signs of the inhabitants: fantastically gnarled roots, lost bird feathers, or imprints in the snow. Had I been able to measure my cortisol (stress hormone) levels before I entered the forest and after my walk, the difference would’ve been immense. When I got home, I sat back in an armchair, opened my laptop, and words started to pour out effortlessly onto the screen.
Eighteen years before I typed the final period of this text, the American writer and journalist Richard Louv published Last Child in the Woods, in which he coined the term “nature-deficit disorder.” This phenomenon describes people’s increasing lack of contact with nature, which results in mental and social disorders, obesity, depression, bone, muscular and circulatory diseases, impaired immunity, predisposition to viral and bacterial infections, and—as I experienced—concentration issues. Although not officially an illness, the term stuck and is used everywhere to describe conditions ensuing from a lack of (or rare) contact with nature. It mostly occurs in children, but every year more and more adults are showing the symptoms.
Pokémon vs. Otters
Some excellent proof of how far removed we are from nature is that many children are better at identifying Pokémon than real plants and animals. The respected journal Science reported on this twenty years ago (sampling 109 eight-year-olds from a British school). And it didn’t cover exotic species, only flora and fauna commonly found where the children lived. So abstract creatures like Pikachu from color-printed cards are more recognizable than deer from the local woods. Similarly, the weekly, Nature, reported that even for adults who played Pokémon for hours in their childhood, the very sight of those colorful critters activates the occipitotemporal sulcus—the region of the brain responsible for processing images of animals. Staring at those fantastic creatures for so long has left lasting impressions in their brains, and actually replaced real creatures for many young people. But I’m not knocking Pokémon—my son also used to collect the cards, but we’d go out for long walks in the forest every weekend to watch real animals together.
Citymania
Cities are associated with prosperity and increased happiness, but is this really true? The oldest urban settlements date from the Bronze Age, and the first city on earth is thought to be Jericho in the Middle East, first established eleven thousand years ago, in the early Holocene. As far off as it may sound, Homo sapiens evolved some 250,000 years ago, but entire millennia elapsed before urban communities began to form.
Initially, cities developed rather slowly, with their first rapid growth spurt following the Industrial Revolution and the birth of capitalism. This gives some idea of the brevity of urban history in the span of intelligent human life on Earth. We simply haven’t had long enough to be fully in our element there. At the same time, modern cities are developing at a pace the philosophers never dreamt of. When Richard Louv’s book was published, the majority of our planet’s population was not living in cities, but that soon changed. In 2018, half of humanity was living in urbanized areas, and the UN estimates it will be 68 percent by 2050. Forty-three megacities of over ten million inhabitants are also predicted by 2030.
The Missing Factor
I’ll never forget my trip to Vancouver, one of the greenest cities on the planet. I spent over a week riding the buses all around its streets, marveling at the large parks and vast amount of trees growing beside its roads, pavements, and squares. I envied the Canadians, living in a country which has enjoyed several decades of universal tolerance and prosperity, with clean, green, sustainably managed cities.
Indeed, Canadians have little to complain about: the eleventh World Happiness Report from 2023 ranked them in a high thirteenth place (Poland was thirty-ninth). Yet I was surprised to learn from the report that people living in Canada’s green cities were still unhappier than those in the suburbs (according to NBER data). This was not affected by the higher incomes, lower unemployment, and better education levels in cities—or at least, not enough to make urban residents happier than rural residents.
The World Happiness Report gauges a number of factors, including GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom of choice, generosity, and corruption levels. The latest top-ten countries are Finland (for the sixth year running), Denmark, Iceland, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and New Zealand. Many of these have managed to conserve their natural landscapes. Personally, I think pristine nature is missing from that list of factors (if it were, would Poland have rated higher?).
We have known for a long time that people feel better when things are greener. A comprehensive study carried out in the United States from 1990 to 2017 showed that the decimation of trees by the emerald ash borer (an Asian beetle) resulted in increased deaths from circulatory and lower respiratory tract diseases in fifteen states. Unfortunately, the process is hard to stop – scientists from McGill University, the USDA Forest Service’s Southern Research Station, and North Carolina State University estimate that, in the next three decades, these extremely invasive insects will destroy up to 1.4 million trees growing in American urban areas. In that case, are even more deaths of US residents to be expected? It would seem so.
The impact on public health also demonstrates the importance of trees in cities. Their leaves trap particles and absorb gasses, thus helping to cleanse air pollution. That’s worth considering the next time you want to chop down that spruce tree outside the window because it’s overshadowing the lounge.
Green Light at the End of the Tunnel
In the mid-1980s, the eminent evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson popularized the biophilia hypothesis, which describes the natural human need to seek contact with nature and other living creatures. This theory may in some way confirm why we love to care for pets. Unfortunately, there is also proof to the contrary. Research cited by the Journal of Environmental Psychology showed that interest in nature among children ages four to eleven develops more from observing adults than from an innate desire to explore the world of fauna and flora. As it transpired, children brought up in Western cultures (both in cities and the countryside) prefer urban areas to natural ones, and only start to favor nature later in life.
How, then, does one get youngsters interested? Possibly, rather than banning children from using their phones, it would be better to show them interesting things online, which might grow into an inter-generational passion. They can—and should—discover the natural world from the couch, too. I’m overjoyed to see that scientific literature on animals, particularly birds, is increasingly popular in Poland. There are many bird enthusiast groups on social media, some numbering over fifty thousand members. Even the language is changing: we read more about “non-human animals” or “creatures other than humans”, and there are attempts to decipher the unique language of fauna and flora (a subject studied by the philosopher Eva Meijer, for example).
Mixing Business with Pleasure
Those who think “greenscrolling” is insufficient (and rightly so!) should—as soon as possible—get out of the house and start enjoying nature. There’s no such thing as “bad weather” if we wish to have contact with nature and make fascinating observations. Scandinavians are the best example of people who aren’t scared off by rain or snow during the walks they so love. Going out in a high wind can even be exhilarating. Why? Because the gusts might blow rare species of birds into our country, from North America or Siberia, for instance. Coastal storms are particularly attractive to bird lovers—when the beachgoers flee in panic, crowds of amateur (and other) ornithologists descend with their binoculars and telescopes to start scrutinizing the sea. The perfect time to watch geese is from the end of February. I’ve often stood motionless for hours in freezing wind and driving sleet, peering through a telescope at flocks of thousands of birds, hoping to spot rare red-breasted or lesser white-fronted geese. I seldom do, but when it happens, it’s immensely satisfying, despite my numb fingers, cold-chapped lips, and runny nose. Directly after a snowfall, I head for the forest, as it’s the best time to search for animal tracks (especially wolves), and a freezing, windless, starry night is perfect to listen out for owls hooting in the woods.
Free Therapy
More and more scientific studies have proven that birdwatching can be therapeutic. Simply being surrounded by birdsong cheers us up. According to a YouGov poll commissioned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 91 percent of British adults said that seeing birds and hearing birdsong has a positive impact on their mental health and wellbeing. Meanwhile, scientists at King’s College London have found that visits to places with a wealth of bird life, such as parks and canals, could be prescribed by doctors to treat mental health conditions. So it’s worth taking care of the green spaces around our homes, especially trees and shrubs which provide shelter for urban birds.
Therefore, to perk ourselves up (and improve our health) we ought to go out to the woods or the park and observe nature. We will learn to be attentive and notice even the smallest wonders of nature: lichens on the trees, insects, little flowers. A pocket magnifying glass might come in handy, although we shouldn’t turn our backs on modern technology, such as smartphones. Their increasingly impressive lens parameters allow for perfect macro shots, which allow us to enjoy natural microcosms for longer. The main thing is to fully concentrate and consciously observe these natural marvels without immediately sharing them on social media—it’s better to wait until you’re back home.
In time, we will start to notice more and more, and the urge to discover things and plan our next outings will be insatiable. Just see for yourselves.
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