Urban Nature Can Heal Our Modern Ills -- Who Knew?

From the conference brochure

Cool conference coming up at Yale to which the public is invited. The real, full title: Urban Nature as a Health Resource: From Evidence to Action, taking place on February 5-6.

I was going to post the official conference description but I found the speech abstract of keynote speaker Dr. William Bird to be far more compelling -- it makes the case in dramatic fashion.  Hence my tongue-in-cheek title.  Dr. Bird's words of wisdom follow (emphasis mine):

Over the past 100,000 years we have connected with the natural environment to ensure that we not only survive as a species but that we thrive and dominate. However despite our undoubted success and with rising life expectancy we have “created” a new sickness that is killing people in greater numbers than at any time in history. Non Communicable diseases have the common risk factor of chronic inflammation which is strongly associated with chronic stress. There is good empirical evidence that when we become isolated or disconnected from a supportive natural environment we become stressed. In this talk I will argue that it is our disconnection from nature that is driving this epidemic of Type II diabetes, obesity, depression etc. Our healthcare systems are not fit for purpose in tackling these diseases. Therefore to consign these diseases to history requires a revolution of new thinking, with nature at the very centre of urban design, healthcare, technology and education.

To learn more, to download the brochure, and to register for the conference, click here. By the way, even if you can't make it personally, you can join it by Livestream.  

-Angel Fernandez-Chavero

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