Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild

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Apowerful and beautifully written survey of the latest scientific research into the vast range of benefits to our minds, bodies, and spirits when we do things outside.” —Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See In 2015, the United Nations officially recognized the principles of Earth Jurisprudence, stating that “human rights are meaningless if the ecosystems that sustain us do not have the legal right to exist.” In 2008, Ecuador’s new constitution included the “Rights of Nature,” and in 2010, Bolivia passed a “Law of the Rights of Mother Earth.” Also, one piece of New Zealand legislation has been called a “new dawn in conservation management.” The Te Urewera Act, passed in 2014, granted legal rights to an ancient forest of the same name that is sacred to the Tūhoe people, a tribe of the Māori. Extolling the virtues of green urbanism and forest schooling, sharing skepticism about virtual experiences of nature, and bashing the atrociousness of astroturf, Jones takes us along with her on a journalistic mission that found Jones herself surprised by "how much and how varied the evidence is," (p 194) that we desperately need nature exposure in our day-to-day lives.

The blueprint exists to help us remake human habitats to incorporate nature. But climate scientists and ecologists tell us that time is running out. We need to restore our relationship with the Earth – to see ourselves as part of the larger ecosystem, not as conquerors of it. On the whole, I really liked the approach taken here. However, I must say that I found the prologue and epilogue to Losing Eden rather strange. Jones has written an imagined piece about what the world may look like in the year 2100 – clue, something close to apocalyptic. She focuses this upon a young girl named Xena, and her grandmother, who still remembers natural green landscapes, and a great deal of animals who have become extinct in her lifetime. There is no nature whatsoever in Xena’s world; rather, she has to rely on a ‘holographic nature scene (HNS)’ set up in her grandmother’s living room. I completely understand what Jones was trying to achieve with this imagined future, and the stark warning it comes with, but it did not feel necessary in a work of non-fiction, and I do not feel as though it was a particularly good fit. I far preferred the main body of the work. Many people believe that worrying about the natural world is a privileged concern – something only the wealthy bother themselves with. But when proximity to nature can determine your health outcome, caring about the natural world is not a luxury. Research by Professor Rich Mitchell of Glasgow University posits that greener neighborhoods could reduce the health gap between the rich and poor and thus make our society more equal – a concept known as equigenesis. A lot of us have found solace in our surroundings since the onset of the pandemic, with its almost universal rules of staying close to home, and limiting exercise. My boyfriend and I had to entirely curb our extensive travelling, and we found such solace in connecting with what was around us. For me, a daily walk in the park, where I could breathe fresh air and see that the natural world was something close to thriving, was a rejuvenating experience. I have always loved nature, and have always been appreciative of it, but since the early spring of 2020, it has meant more to me than ever before.Jones writes of the intersection of science, wellness, and the environment, and reveals that in the last decade, scientists have begun to formulate theories of why people feel better after a walk in the woods and an experience with the natural world. She describes the recent data that supports evidence of biological and neurological responses: the lowering of cortisol (released in response to stress), the boost in cortical attention control that helps us to concentrate and subdues mental fatigue, and the increase in activity in the parasympathetic nervous system, slowing the heart and allowing the body to rest. Beautifully written, movingly told and meticulously researched … a convincing plea for a wilder, richer world’ Isabella Tree, author of Wilding Throughout, Jones has called upon a lot of nature writers and ecologists, drawing upon their prose and ideas. One of the real strengths in Losing Eden is the way in which she writes about the incredibly diverse reaction to nature through the ages. When Petrarch, for instance, climbed Mont Ventoux in 1336, Jones remarks: ‘… he chastised himself for “admiring earthly things” and fled angrily from the peaks in shame.’ From the eighteenth-century in Britain, when travel for the middle classes became more widespread, blinds were pulled down on trains to ‘avoid offence’ from the ‘mountains and hills that had previously been seen as pimples, warts or blisters on the surface of God’s earth.’ To stimulate real, lasting change, we must amend how we design cities, enact legislation, and consider our health. Throughout, Jones continues to pose very valid questions, particularly about accessibility. Despite the clear benefits of connecting with nature which she sets out, she is aware that a lot of people simply do not have regular access to the natural world, and that those in poorer communities are far less likely to be able to reap the benefits.

Beautifully written, movingly told and meticulously researched ... a convincing plea for a wilder, richer world' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding But Reddy is also a product of her parents’ hard-won social mobility, her father getting help to study in the UK, before the family moved to Canada when she was young. Here, her childhood experiences of Quebec landscapes are transporting: “Into this weird, wild winter wonderland, I was delivered, agog… the space, the nature and the quiet were exactly what an inquisitive, imaginative seven-year-old needed.” Her interest in more shamanic relationships with nature also feed into her heritage, particularly her connections with her mother’s Hindu faith. As a child she had a shrine to Shiva and Lakshmi, and writes about how goddesses are believed to be present in trees, flowers, water, and the sun. There is no other time in a human's life course that entails such dramatic change-other than adolescence. And yet this life-altering transition has been sorely neglected by science, medicine and philosophy. Its seismic effects go largely unrepresented across literature and the arts. Speaking about motherhood as anything other than a pastel-hued dream remains, for the most part, taboo. If the reader hasn't read any psychology book before this may all be very fascinating, but otherwise it gets a bit repetitive. Fight or flight syndrome, rising cortisol levels with continuous stress, more schizophrenia in dense urban areas, the evolutionary reason why the urban setting is just not right for us - it is all quite well known.A radical new examination of the transition into motherhood and how it affects the mind, brain and body Impassioned . . . urgent and complex . . . Jones conveys in evocative prose the exuberance of her own rediscovery of nature’s wondrousness, a significant component in her recovery from struggles with addiction and depression . . . These vivid elements of personal experience are interwoven with factual information drawn from a wide array of sources . . . compelling and wide-ranging.” A lot of people’s disconnect from the natural world is almost complete. They live in cities or heavily built-up suburban areas with little or no interaction with the wider world. Some cities have been removing trees making that connection to a non-human living thing even more remote. Our phones and screens provide us with non-stop notifications following the latest hashtags and rolling news.

The word “nature” suggests a separation, as if we are not ourselves part of nature. “Environmental collapse” sounds like it is happening in a vacuum, and we bear no responsibility. An alternative is the more urgent “ecocide.” Losing Eden begins with the author wondering what the world will look like for her baby daughter. ‘What was coming for her and her generation?’ she asks. ‘Every day brought news of another species in fast decline. Swifts, swallows, hedgehogs, all were on the road to extinction… With 80 per cent of Europe and the United States already without their dark skies because of light pollution, would she ever see the Milky Way? And what would this “biological annihilation”, as scientists had put it, do to her mind and spirit, assuming she managed to survive at all.’See teos on kindlasti üks, mis oma tohutult paljude näidete ja tulemustega maailma eri paigus korda saadetust aitab meil nii ühiskonna kui ka indiviidi tasandil sellest east ka Eestis ja mujal kiiremini välja kasvada.

The 2nd edition of an expansive history of the American West in terms of its environmental heritage. Today many of us live indoor lives, disconnected from the natural world as never before. And yet nature remains deeply ingrained in our language, culture and consciousness. For centuries, we have acted on an intuitive sense that we need communion with the wild to feel well. Now, in the moment of our great migration away from nature, science has begun to catch up, with more and more evidence emerging to confirm its place at the heart of our psychological wellbeing. So what happens, asks acclaimed science journalist Lucy Jones, as we lose our bond with the natural world – might we also be losing part of ourselves? A passionate and thorough exploration of the growing scientific evidence showing why humans require other species to stay well.” Urgent, accessible, moving [...] A beautifully written, research-heavy study about how nature offers us wellbeing" Losing Eden provides the evidence of how nature makes us calmer, healthier, happier, even kinder. Jones moves between close biological evidence – how our parasympathetic nervous system is triggered when we're in nature, how bacteria found in soil increases stress resilience – to large-scale environmental studies. The book is shot through with personal experience [...] but is] not really a memoir; it's about all of us."

Kõige enam jäi kõlama paralleel, et praegu on inimkond loodusega suhtes justkui teismeeas mässumeelne tütarlaps, kes emale vastu hakkab, ja ei adu, mida tema heaks tehtud on. Varem või hiljem kasvab tütar sellest east välja ja taipab, et tal on ema taas vaja. Did you know that experiencing awe can make us more generous? Or that all human babies, left to their own devices, will eat soil? Or that three-quarters of kids (aged 5-12) in the UK spend less time outdoors than prison inmates? Losing Eden is a powerful and beautifully written survey of the latest scientific research into the vast range of benefits to our minds, bodies, and spirits when we do things outside. It made me want to throw my phone in a drawer and drag my kids outside—so I did!” Detroit is one example of a city that is now biophilic thanks to a grassroots movement. Once the hub of the US automobile industry, Detroit became a center of urban decay after decades of abandonment and disinvestment. Detroit residents, longtime victims of systemic racism that drove poverty and health problems, are now reclaiming their city by transforming the vacant lots and open land into natural spaces. The city currently boasts over 1,500 community gardens and small urban farms – providing residents with fresh, nutritious food.