The 5th June every year is World Environment Day, an initiative of the United Nations. Each year there is a theme and a host country. This year's theme is: "Connecting People to Nature – in the city and on the land, from the poles to the equator", and the host country is Canada. Follow this link to the World Environment Day organisation's 2017 page.
So this month's theme at the Pump House Environment Centre is 'With Nature' (you can search social media for items related to World Environment Day with the hashtag '#WithNature'). We will certainly be getting out and connecting with nature. For ideas and inspiration for you to do the same, follow this link.
Connecting with nature
It should come as no surprise that here at the Pump House Environment Centre we believe that nature is good for you. After all, the more we connect with and appreciate the natural world, the more likely we are to want to protect it. But an appreciation of nature, and spending time in nature, also improves health and wellbeing. Here's just a couple of pieces of evidence to back up that claim (see the links section at the foot of this page for more!):
• BBC Earth page about a University of Derby study '30 Days with Nature', which showed that there was a scientifically significant increase in people’s health, happiness.
• The Ecologist magazine page about another scientific study, in which participants showed evidence of "lower frustration, engagement and arousal, and higher meditation when moving into a green space zone".
And here's a video that should inspire you:
Interesting links ...
A few links if you want to find out more ...
• Visit our What's On page for local World Environment Day events in June 2017.
• Wikipedia page that shows the host countries and themes for World Environment Day since it became an annual event in 1974.
• If you're in London on World Environment Day, you could go to the Society for the Environment conference (it's free), in Westminster.
• And if you're in Bristol during June, you could take part in the Bristol Natural History Consortium's Festival of Nature.
• A history of World Environment Day.
... and below, you can watch an inspiring TEDx talk about how being in nature promotes mental, physical and social wellbeing. The speaker sees nature as an "evidence-based health promotion intervention":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uk0QriYYws