Connecting to Nature – By the Numbers

by

Joe Baust

Connecting to nature is a matter of a medical necessity and is essential for the well-being and health of both children and adults.

Here are the numbers:

66 percent: Increase in myopia in the US between 1970s and early 2000s.1

50 percent: Amount of the world’s population that will develop myopia by 2050.1

1–2 hours: Amount of daily time outside linked to reduced risk of a child developing myopia.2

2 times: The likelihood of an older woman developing diabetes due to stress.1

45–69 years: Age at which mental sharpness starts to decline. This decline is slowest among those in the greenest areas.1

795,000: Number of strokes in the US each year.1

2nd:  Rank of strokes among the top leading causes of death worldwide.1

Green Spaces promote healthy behavior.1

Those of us in the field of environmental education need to take heed of these numbers and act accordingly. Going out into your back yard with green space can be done easily. But spending time in nature is therapeutic not only to children but adults as well.

In our zeal to work for environmental education, perhaps we should listen to this research and model behavior which takes us outdoors more often.

Sources:

1) WebMD, https://img.webmd.com/dtmcms/live/webmd/consumer_assets/site_images/magazine/digital_issues_pdf/May19_DigitalIssue.pdf

2) Acta Ophthalmol, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5599950/

Photo: Sue Bumpous