Healthier Planet!

Over 50% of the global population currently resides in urban areas, and that proportion continues to grow rapidly. In the World, 3 out of five people currently live in cities. The urbanization of human society has important implications for health and well-being. On one hand, dense urban populations may have more access to health care and amenities that promote healthy lifestyles. On the other hand, urban environments cultivate a variety of environmental (e.g., pollution, sanitation concerns) and social (e.g., segregation, socioeconomic disparities) stressors that make them more susceptible to health problems. Understanding, quantifying, and managing the variables that influence all aspects of human welfare has become a major challenge in the movement to build sustainable, healthy cities.

To achieve this goal, city planners and managers must determine how to efficiently and effectively monitor and manage health outcomes. Historically, standards have been based on metrics of objective population health such as morbidity and mortality rates. Although such measures are undoubtedly important, they often fail to capture more dynamic aspects of human welfare. Consequently, many researchers and practitioners across multiple disciplines are turning toward the quality of life measures, including life satisfaction, happiness, and wellbeing as comprehensive strategies for assessing holistic health outcomes.

 A key question has, therefore, become: what are the social and environmental determinants of human wellbeing in urban areas?

Take a couple of minutes to learn how you can do your part to build a healthier planet!

1. Collective Effort

Planting your own garden may make you wonder how much of a difference you are actually making. The thing is, gardening is a collective effort! Many small gardens in a community can make a huge difference. In fact, research in the UK found that personal gardens compose over 25% of the trees in non-forest environments! This is your chance to do your part!

2. Organic Gardening

It is important to understand that the Earth’s natural ecosystem has been designed to sustain itself without the interaction of humans! Have you ever looked in awe at a natural landscape full of birds, bees, trees, flowers, and beautiful plant life? Guess what; it didn’t make fertilizer, pesticides, and slug repellent to enrich this environment!

3. Global Warming

Global warming, the end-all and the topic of countless conspiracy theories! Here are the basics of global warming.

• C02 is a greenhouse gas that helps to trap heat from the sun on the Earth. Too much C02 can be a bad thing.

• Global warming is caused by too many greenhouse gases, making it difficult for the Earth to cool naturally.

4. Wildlife Preservation

With a constantly growing global population, it can be easy to forget about the natural environments that we impact when we alter the planet. The Earth is composed of small inter-dependent ecosystems. Growing a garden can create habitats for smaller life forms like birds, insects, aphids, ants and other species that thrive and reproduce in the ecosystem. Each creature plays an important role in helping the environment!