Madrid.-Noemí Romero Vera.- Many people with the arrival of the new year make a list of goals in order to prioritize and optimize their physical and mental health, in them increase the relationship with nature, either by growing plants or doing outdoor physical activities.
Asome specialists consider get involved in nature and lead a more sustainable life “could have therapeutic and preventive power for the physical and emotional health of people and the health of the planet“Therefore, integrating solutions such as green spaces in urban environments or improving environmental education “That’s the key to securing it.”
According to the UN, each tree can absorb up to 150 kilos of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, in addition, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, points out that the trees They can lower the temperature between 2 and 8 degrees in a cityand improve water management by capturing, storing and returning it to the atmosphere.
Lto the company international Sanitas, ensures in a document that “trees in urban areas reduce the possibility of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases related to pollution and exposure to ultraviolet light, by filtering it”.
Moreover, according to the health insurance fund, the trees “They are said to have positive effects on the quality of people’s sleep, due to their air-purifying ability, and caring for plants would help reduce anxiety and stress levels.”
However, experts like them Vice-Director of the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Plant Biology (IBMCP) of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Miguel Mullet, expresses doubts about these advantages and He assures that plants are not medicinal pills and that “their care can serve as therapy for some people, but not for others”.
mule holds Moreover, it is doubtful to relate the air quality of a plant to its influence on sleep, given the minimal amount of oxygen in a room. –with little sun and less photosynthesis– is able to produce.
Benefits of green spaces and environmental education
Showever, the Sanitas Psychologist, Raquel Velasco del Castillo Among other benefits of green spaces, he points to “opportunities for contact and social connection with the community, avoiding isolation and lowering levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, lowering blood pressure”.
The Coordinator of the Master in Environmental Education at the University of Malaga, John Jesus Martin, He claims that “even though we have built our paradise of asphalt comfort in the cities, we need nature because we are part of it”.
Martín thus insists on the importance of good environmental education in green spaces, and assures that “educational centers and institutions should promote reconnection with nature, so that people improve their behavior towards the environment. environment in a conscious way
In the same line Velasco del Castillo He assures that it would help to generate more emotional connections from the cities, “by learning about the vegetation zones through natural routes or physical activities that take place there”.
Connection with nature
The Professor of Environmental Psychology at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Jose Antonio Corraliza, holds that the relationship to nature comes from two hypotheses, “that of biophilia, and that of psychological restoration”.
The first has to do with the feeling of comfort that nature generates in humans for having evolved in contact with it; the second, with how it is able to reduce fatigue of Warningto derived from the information overload of cities.
Biophilia derives from phytophilia, the preference for environments with vegetation (green spaces) and hydrophilia, preference for places where there is water (blue spaces), both related to a more automatic response that reduces stress when contemplating these elements.
sustainable lifestyle
Corraliza asserts that “a more sustainable lifestyle can help us be better off psychologically” and points out that lasting changes in pro-environmental behaviors are more likely to occur due to appreciation of the environment than fear of losing it” because “when it positively empowers people, leads to further behavior change, and builds effective sustainability behaviors.”
The psychologist concludes that “the nervous system lacks this environmental stimulation”, and that “green spaces in urban planning can be an opportunity to break the routines of our daily lives”.
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