Contact with Nature as Essential to the Human Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-85
Author(s):  
Alan E. Kazdin ◽  
Pablo Vidal-González
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Human Contact ◽  
The Many ◽  
Made In

Human contact with nature is more important than ever before considering the global confinement brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the increased urbanization of society, and increased rates of mental disorders and threats to human well-being. This article conveys the importance of contact with nature from three perspectives: historical, sociocultural, and scientific. These perspectives convey the many ways in which contact with nature is essential to human life, the multiple ways in which this is expressed, and the broad range of benefits this has. The case for preserving the natural environment continues to be made in light of the dangers of climate change, the deleterious effects of pollution, and the importance of habitats. We add to the case by underscoring how human well-being has depended on contact with natural environments and how the need for this contact is more salient now than ever before.

Prehistory in the Call to Abraham

2006 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyle Eslinger
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Classical Literature ◽  
Common Pool ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Book Of Genesis

AbstractA common pool of primitive human values fuels the world's religions. These values are evident in classical religions and are found lying on the surface in the book of Genesis, which is among the Bible's richest archetypal repositories. The Genesis pre-history focuses on human well-being. The mythological assumptions underlying this story manifest the rudiments of human thought and experience laid down in the archaic period. A hostile natural environment evokes behaviour to overcome its hazards. The narrative explores the mythological options of agency for achieving human well-being. As in other theistic worldviews two primary agencies are envisioned. Gods and humans, each with strengths and weaknesses, are potential protagonists on the stage of human optimism. Genesis inherits a southwest Asian cosmogony in which the gods are hostile to the advanced potential of collective human agency. Divine hostility complicates agency options, leading to a devotional compromise in the form of God's covenant with Abraham. The essay suggests the value of a renewed awareness of the influence of archaic human experience on the classical literature of ancient Israel. The argument is developed with reference to the traditional figure of Abraham.

Health and natural landscapes: concepts and applications

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Traditional Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Natural Landscapes ◽  
The Many ◽  
Over Time

Abstract This book contains 8 chapters that discuss and explore these positive outcomes by delving into how humans perceive and respond to the natural world. It also looks at the different stages of human development and how societal perspectives regarding natural landscapes have changed over time. These perspectives influence our responses to current issues such as climate change and pandemics. Examining our worldviews is critical to developing a deeper understanding of human beliefs and relationships with natural landscapes. Moreover, empirically based theories and models can be useful in enhancing that understanding, but other realities are also important such as traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and a rekindling of a sense of connection with nature. Whether empirically derived in recent decades or handed down through the generations, this knowledge can be useful as we consider the many forms of human well-being, including physical, mental, spiritual, and social.

Deadly Delays, Saving Opportunities: Creating a More Dangerous World?

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Shue
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
The Third ◽  
Energy Regime ◽  
Human Habitat ◽  
Strong Claim

We now know that anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are interfering with the planet’s climate system in ways that are likely to lead to dangerous threats to human life (not to mention nonhuman life) and that are likely to compromise the fundamental well-being of people who live at a later time. We have not understood this for very long—for most of my life, for example, we were basically clueless about climate. Our recently acquired knowledge means that decisions about climate policy are no longer properly understood as decisions entirely about preferences of ours but also crucially about the vulnerabilities of others—not about the question “How much would we like to spend to slow climate change?” but about “How little are we in decency permitted to spend in light of the difficulties and the risks of difficulties to which we are likely otherwise to expose people, people already living and people yet to live?” For we now realize that the carbon-centered energy regime under which we live is modifying the human habitat, creating a more dangerous world for the living and for posterity. Our technologically primitive energy regime based on setting fire to fossil fuels is storing up, in the planet’s radically altering atmosphere, sources of added threat for people who are vulnerable to us and cannot protect themselves against the consequences of our decisions for the circumstances in which they will have to live—most notably, whichever people inherit the worn-and-torn planet we vacate. As we academics love to note, matters are, of course, complicated. Let’s look at a few of the complications, concentrating on some concerning risk. Mostly, we are talking about risks because, although we know strikingly much more about the planetary climate system than we did a generation ago, much is still unknown and unpredictable. I will offer three comments about risk. The third comment is the crucial one and makes a strong claim about a specific type of risk, with three distinctive features.

scholarly journals Are we ignoring a black elephant in the Anthropocene? Climate change and global pandemic as the crisis in health and equality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinichiro Asayama ◽  
Seita Emori ◽  
Masahiro Sugiyama ◽  
Fumiko Kasuga ◽  
Chiho Watanabe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Global Environment ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Sustainability Research ◽  
Health And Well Being

Abstract Climate change and coronavirus pandemic are the twin crises in the Anthropocene, the era in which unsustainable growth of human activities has led to a significant change in the global environment. The two crises have also exposed a chronic social illness of our time—a deep, widespread inequality in society. Whilst the circumstances are unfortunate, the pandemic can provide an opportunity for sustainability scientists to focus more on human society and its inequalities, rather than a sole focus on the natural environment. It opens the way for a new normative commitment of science in a time of crises. We suggest three agendas for future climate and sustainability research after the pandemic: (1) focus on health and well-being, (2) moral engagement through empathy, and (3) science of loss for managing grief.

The Oyster and the Experience Machine

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Kraut
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Experience Machine ◽  
Better Than

An experientialist conception of well-being holds that well-being is composed of many goods, all of them experiential, but only one of which is pleasure. Against the prevailing orthodoxy, Nozick’s idea of an “experience machine” is shown to support rather than undermine experientialism. Further, the richness of human experience can give our lives a special kind of superiority: human goods are incommensurably better than the low-level pleasures that might be felt in an oyster-like existence. J. S. Mill’s distinction between the quality and the quantity of good experience is a rejection of the claim of J. M. E. McTaggart that a sufficiently long-lived oyster-like life would be better than a far briefer human life.

BARRIERS AND BENEFITS TO LEARNING IN NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS: TOWARDS A RECONCEPTUALISATION OF THE POSSIBILITIES FOR CHANGE

COSMOS ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 08 (02) ◽  
pp. 153-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUSTIN DILLON
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
School Students ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Self Worth ◽  
Effective Delivery

Policies designed to increase public engagement with biodiversity advocate increased education across a range of educational contexts. Evidence of the benefits of learning in natural environments (LINE) continues to be amassed. LINE affords direct benefits as diverse as educational, health and psychological and indirect benefits ranging from social to financial. Research into the value of LINE has failed to address the full range of benefits. Instead, there has been a narrow focus on easily measurable outcomes and a desire to seek answers to simplistic questions such as "does LINE raise standards more than learning in the classroom?" An attempt is made to outline the full range of benefits which are available to all school students. The outcomes include: benefits to individual participants (knowledge and understanding; skills; attitudes and behaviours; health and well-being; self-efficacy and self-worth); benefits to teachers, schools and the wider community, and benefits to the natural environment sector. Several barriers exist to the effective delivery of LINE. These barriers can be grouped into those that challenge the natural environment sector and those that challenge schools. The challenges facing the sector include a lack of a coordinated effective approach to working with schools at a local level. The challenges facing schools include those frequently mentioned such as the risk of accidents, cost and curriculum pressures. However, another set of challenges exists, at local, institutional and personal levels. These challenges include teachers' confidence, self-efficacy and their access to training in using natural environments close to the school and further afield.

scholarly journals Policies and Programs Critical for Greater Energy Efficiency

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-167
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Good News ◽  
Energy Services ◽  
Policies And Programs ◽  
The Many

In 2018 businesses, households and government enterprises throughout the global economy spent an estimated €7.4 trillion to meet the many demands for various energy services. Current projec­tions suggest that the present scale of annual expenditures may increase by more than 60 per­cent to €12.0 trillion by 2050 (with all costs expressed in real 2018 values). Although the global economy derives important benefits from the purchase of many energy services, the inefficient use of energy also creates an array of costs and constraints that burden our social and economic well-being. Among these costs or constraints are increased health costs, air pollution, climate change and a less productive economy—especially over the long term. Yet there is good news within the countless energy markets throughout the global economy. Whether improved lighting in homes and schools, transporting people and goods more efficiently, or powering the many industrial processes within any given nation, there are huge opportunities to improve the productive use of energy in ways that reduce total economic costs. And those same energy efficiency upgrades can also reduce greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change, as well as lessen other impacts on both people and the global environment. However, as this manuscript suggests, it will take an adequately funded set of smart policies and effective programs, including a skilled work force, to drive the optimal scale of energy efficiency investments.

scholarly journals Legal protection of Germany's national interests in the field of environmental security: the evolution of approaches

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svitlana Muravyova
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
Peace Building

It is widely recognised that climate change is having malign effects on human life. Climate change is a global issue, but the political action necessary to address it is inevitably local and national as well as international. The security dilemma is one of the most important theoretical ideas in international relations. The content of security policy is evolving because "security" is a social structure, the content and structure of which is constantly changing depending on the transformation of existing and the emergence of new threats and challenges (climate change, destruction of the ozone layer, desertification, fresh water shortages, etc. - the list of current environmental problems in the XXI century is increasingly supplemented by new threats. Scholars, policy-makers, and activists have proposed broadening use of the concept security beyond its traditional military focus to take into account environmental threats that seriously jeopardize human well-being. This paper explores how ecological and climate problems have fundamentally changed the way we think about security. The non-physical security, diversification of threats, and the salience of identity are key effects of globalization in the security realm. These security effects translate into certain behavioral tendencies in a Germany foreign policy that have thus far not been studied in the literature. The claim that environmental factors should be integrated into the concept of security was first made in the early 1980s.  In the late twentieth - early twenty-first century the concept of security has been expanded and applied to address many of the most important issues of international relations theory and security policy. Environmental issues are not only to be treated as non-military threats to the security of societies, but can also work to promote cooperation and peace-building. In modern conditions, the ability of the state system to respond to environmental hazards is criticized, and therefore fundamentally different management structures are proposed as a replacement for it. Therefore, targeted climate protection policies at the international and regional levels, as well as at the national and local levels, are needed to effectively address environmental and climate threats and challenges. Germany positions itself as a regional and world leader in the field of environmental protection and climate. The idea of ​​caring for the environment is gradually becoming an essential element of the value system, legal culture and national identity of German society and the state, which it not only promotes both in the European Communities / European Union and beyond, but also consistently protects. Within the framework of the EU environmental policy, there is room for independent national action by the German government. This guarantees Germany a free choice of national strategies in promoting environmental policy.

scholarly journals Office-Nature Integration Trends and Forest-Office Concept FO-AM

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-47
Author(s):  
Kastytis Rudokas ◽  
Huriye Armagan Dogan ◽  
Odeta Viliūnienė ◽  
Jurga Vitkuvienė ◽  
Indrė Gražulevičiūtė-Vileniškė
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sitting Time ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Positive Effects

Abstract For sustainable development, it is important to ensure healthy life and well-being for all ages, promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, productive employment and decent work, take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects and protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems. Taking into account the negative effects of climate change, the degrading effects of contemporary conventional industrial scale agricultural practices, the declining everyday physical activity of the working age people in developed countries, and other problems related to indoor work, this research proposes the office concept entitled FO-AM (Forest-Office Administrative (function) Movement) that allows to gradually move from sitting to walking while working in purposefully created or adapted forest areas. Numerous studies have been conducted on the positive effects of the natural environment on human health and productivity. A study published by Australian researchers revealed that sitting time is directly linked to all-cause mortality. While research results call for effective innovations for reducing the amount of time spent sitting and encouraging people, especially urban residents, to connect with nature, no effective holistic solutions have been found yet. The article presents a literature review on the contemporary office-nature space integration trends and the existing technical and design solutions and contemporary re-naturalization practices of ex-urban areas and presents the conceptual idea of landscape technology FO-AM allowing to transfer the functions of administrative buildings to the semi-natural and natural environment, including partially anthropogenic environment, park, forest park and natural forest, and in this way to address public health and well-being, economic innovation and climate change issues, thus contributing to the long-term sustainability goals.

scholarly journals Creating the Healthiest Nation: Climate Change and Environmental Health Impacts in Nigeria: A Narrative Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. p61
Author(s):  
Morufu Olalekan Raimi ◽  
Tonye Vivien Odubo ◽  
Adedoyin Oluwatoyin Omidiji
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation

Climate change is a “threat multiplier and a prime cause of universal threat to health in the 21st century, including 4th industrial revolution. The health effects of climate change will increase dramatically over the next few years and pose a risk to human life and the well-being of billions of people. As we all know, the milieu is fundamental to our sustained earth survival and environmental changes (natural and artificial) affect it either to the benefit or detriment of humans. Climate change is one of such changes in the physical environment which has grave consequences for the existence of mankind. Climate change is interestingly, no longer a speculative subject. There is a good international scientific consensus existing to show that this phenomenon is real and if recent global warming movements continue, temperature rise, ocean levels and more frequently weather conditions that is extreme (storms, heat-waves, droughts, floods, cyclones, etc.) may perhaps cause severe food shortages, loss of shelter, water, livelihoods, extinction of flora and fauna species. In the recent past, the earth has witnessed devastating weather-related events in different portions of the globe including hurricanes (e.g., Katrina and Rita in USA), tsunamis, typhoons, flooding especially in the Asian Continent, wild fires especially in Australia, USA, etc. Currently, the on-going flood incident in Pakistan that has so far claimed about 1,600 lives and rendered another four million people homeless is a sad reminder of the ugly and devastating consequences of global warming on the environment. There is no gainsaying the fact that humankind is paying dearly for the massive alterations in the environment that have induced changes in climate. This is because of frequent incidence of changes in climate related disasters in the world today. There is hardly any month that passes without an incident occurring in one part of the globe or another since the advent of the 21st century. Changes in climate has significant and potentially devastating health consequences, whether through direct actions (e.g., deaths resulting from heat wave and weather disasters) or disruption of complex biological methods (e.g., changes in infectious diseases patterns, supplies in fresh water and production of food).The report of the fourth assessment of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have globally submitted that “it is estimated that the health of millions of people is affected, for instance, malnutrition increases; deaths increase, diseases and injury; burden of increase diarrheal diseases; frequency of increased cardio-respiratory diseases caused by high levels of ground-level ozone in cities due to climate change; besides altered spatial distribution of some communicable diseases”. The association amongst changes in climate, its drivers, systemic effects, health and socioeconomic growth, mitigation and adaptation has been specified.

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