Nature is Healthcare

Urban environments are disproportionately dead and unhealthy environments, often grey, and characterised by non-living materiality, such as concrete, plastic, glass, or asphalt. The industrious activity of urban environments also disproportionately exposes us to high levels of air pollution, noise pollution, heat, and light pollution -- stressors that take a toll on our health.

All too often, due to capitalist pathways, urban environments leave little room for the equitable inclusion and distribution of Green Space (i.e. Vegetation/Biodiversity) and Blue Space (i.e. Water). This is in spite of Nature having much of the infrastructure and elements to support our physical, mental, and social health and well-being. Humans have evolved in Nature, and it is for a good reason that we say Mother Nature to describe that Nature is, indeed, the basis of Life. Yet, for many People living in the cities of today, Nature is not part of everyday Life.

In this report, we will highlight the major role that Nature plays in our health, going beyond the mere aesthetic value to understanding the nourishing value of Nature. We will highlight that we cannot live healthy lives without healthy Nature and argue that, for healthy People and a healthy Planet, we must stop treating Nature as a service or commodity. Instead, we must live in mutualistic symbiosis with Nature -- in a relationship in which Humans and Nature are equally dependent on and mutually benefiting from each other.

Contributors

• Araceli Camargo, MSc Neuroscience (Kings College London)

• Marie Müller, PhD Candidate in Neuroscience at University College London

• Charlotte Kemp, MSc Cognitive Neuroscience & Psychology

• Jake Robinson, PhD Candidate in Ecology, Microbiomics, and Public Health at University of Sheffield