The dark side of living in the city
Unplugging why our cities are hurting us
⚡️In this newsletter:
Video of the week
Video's cheat sheet
Note from the unplugged team
Video's sources
What's next !?
📹 Video of the week:
The dark side of living in a city
This week we’re taking you on an adventure! Pack your bags as we journey into some very interesting research that explores some of the reasons why living in cities is hurting you mentally and physically. It gets a little dark, but the solution is easy…
📊 Video's cheat sheet
Stand out facts and figures extracted from the video
4.2 Billion
The number of people in the world who live in urban areas
long-term exposure to urban air pollution…
is the equivalent to smoking 1 cigarette packet per day for 29 years!
Just 5%
The average amount of time people spend outdoors
📝 Note from the Unplugged team
When interviewing Lucy Jones and Belinda Kirk for this video, we asked them what the most surprising statistic was from their research. Their answers were identical: there isn’t one single statistic that stands out, but rather, the sheer amount of scientific research and statistics that back up a need to (re)connect with nature is overwhelming.
So, perhaps the question we should be asking is why rather than what. Why are we disconnected from nature? Is it the amount of time we spend in classrooms as children? How has our understanding of the natural world shifted and changed because of industrialisation, colonisation, and climate change? What barriers exist in our societies that prevent equitable access to green and blue spaces? How does the language we use to refer to nature affect our relationship to it?
We hope that these questions, and the thought-provoking interviews in this week’s video, inspire you to analyse your own relationship to the natural and built worlds.
Not sure where to start? Here are two things you can do right now to begin:
Write to your local representative asking for more green spaces in the area you live in.
Go for a walk outside in nature! It doesn’t need to be a forest or completely disconnected from your everyday life. It can be a small park or a space with trees in your area. Whatever is accessible to you!
📚 Video's key sources
Lucy Jones, Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild, 2020
Belinda Kirk, Adventure Revolution: The life-changing power of choosing challenge, 2021
Stanford University, Stanford researchers find mental health prescription: Nature, 2015
Richard Ryan, Netta Weinsteine, Jessey Bernstein, Kirk Warren Brown, Louis Mistretta, Marylène Gagné, Vitalizing effects of being outdoors and in nature, 2010
Kenneth P Wright Jr, Andrew W McHill, Brian R Birks, Brandon R.Griffin, Thomas Rusterholz, Evan D. Chinoy, Entrainment of the Human Circadian Clock to the Natural Light-Dark Cycle, 2013
Time Magazine, You Asked: Is It Bad to Be Inside All Day?, 2016
Our World in Data, Urbanization, 2019
Wired, You Spend 5 Percent of Your Day Outside. Try Making It More, 2017
National Institutes of Health, Study finds link between long-term exposure to air pollution and emphysema, 2019
🚀 What's next !?
We’re working hard on getting our third video to you very soon… stay tuned to our Instagram for the latest updates.
Stay Unplugged!
This is a young project in its first year, we are super curious to hear your reaction, feedback, and thoughts, so please don’t hesitate to write to us.
Thanks for being part of the Unplugged crew ❤
It scares me to think that our planet might look like the world in the fictional movie "The Transformers". Nothing but steel, concrete and pollution. When I have those thoughts that's when I actually pray.
I've lived in a city all my life and I also experience depression, anxiety that is associated with my Autism. The sensory overload of city life is so overwhelming at times- the noises, the lights, the constant hustle and bustle- that when I escape to nature, I feel like a completely different person. I feel an inner peace that I otherwise don't get and the contrast between myself in nature vs the city is so obvious that I wonder if everyone else feels the same way. Love these videos, keep it up Eva.