Sometimes Kathy Willis (61) just couldn’t resist. In the five years that she had been appointed as scientific director of the renowned Botanical Garden Kew Gardens in London, she occasionally ignores the signs. “Keep Off the grass“,”Don’t Touch the Plants” – She knew what the rules were.” But certainly if I had a busy working week, it was so relaxing to lean against a tree. “
Don’t get her wrong: she is not a trees hugger in the floating sense of the word. “I was also skeptical when people said that greenery was good for you. That is in your head, I thought.” As a paleo-ecologist, biodiversity professor and founder of the Oxford Biodiversity Network, she has an impressive scientific track record. Willis – since 2022 officially fully Baroness Willis or Summertown – is a woman of the facts.
And it is precisely those facts that were increasingly struggling with her. In her book Green senses she cites more than a hundred scientific publications that underline that there is a causal link between the nature around us and our physical and mental resilience and healing capacity. “That insight is not new – Already in 1984 it stood in Science an investigation It showed that patients who looked out on trees from their hospital beds from their hospital beds recovered faster after a gallbladder surgery than patients without a green view. But the vast majority of the studies I found dates from the past ten years. The health effects of nature are becoming increasingly measurable. “
Willis is ready for coffee at the end of two intensive days in Rotterdam. Last night, in the Museum Park, she held the annual Doggerland lecture for a sold -out room organized by the Natural History Museum and the British consulate. Today she walked all day throughout Rotterdam along examples of green urban design.
Enthusiastically she looks into the park from the top floor of Natural History: “I have seen so good examples! From the hospital roof garden on the Erasmus MC to the Tegeltaxi, which you can put tiles in front of it. We could take an example in England in England. To be put in the Netherlands as something you can also be the Netherlands in the Netherlands that you can do something in the Netherlands in the Netherlands. To be overcome in that area, but that is precisely what I think of the city of Rotterdam, which has set itself 20 hectares of greenery within a few years.
Yet the richest people often still live in the greenest environment.
“Yes, and that is worrying, especially when you consider that poverty and health problems often go hand in hand. From a large British study with satellite data, Published in The Lancetit turns out that people feel more frightened or depressed as they live further away from greenery. In London, fewer antidepressants are prescribed in neighborhoods with greater tree density on the sidewalk and research from the University of Chicago has even shown that there are fewer cardiovascular disease in streets with more trees. But that message does not seem to land with policy makers. “
In practice it comes down to an open landscape with a few trees, a kind of savannah landscape
Are some types of nature better for us than others?
“Presected: you don’t have to experience the wilderness right away to experience health effects, a houseplant also works wonders. But we do have preferences for certain types of nature for certain types of nature. We appreciate Merelzang higher than crow -scratch. And the American physicist Richard Taylor discovered that people prefer to look at landscapes with a ‘fractual Dimension’ in the number of the number in the number in the number in the number in the number in the number in the number in the number in the number in the number in the number in the number in the figure in the number in the number in the figure in the number in the figure in the number of the number of the number. If it comes down to an open landscape with a few trees, a kind of savannah landscape. Pointing to a work of art on the wall: “Do you see? A park with some trees.”
Not too many trees. Why?
“There you can let go of all kinds of hypotheses on the evolutionary benefits for our distant ancestors during hunting. But recent research also shows that too dense planting increases our stress level. Certainly in urban landscapes people need a great deal of overview. Too many potential hiding places that many women can be able to recognize themselves.” ””
Just about touching trees. Does that really help?
“Certainly. If you touch different surfaces of the same temperature, for example, then your blood pressure will go down at oak and with marble, clay or stainless steel. Rooting with your fingers in the earth can also be very beneficial, especially because more and more research shows how important soil microbes are for your own microbiome – Take the Finnish research It shows that children who play outside on a natural surface already develop a stronger immune system within a month.
“And so there are measurable health benefits with all the senses. Looking out of the window soothes and improves the concentration, the smell of cypresses increases the concentration of certain white blood cells – the Natural Killer Cells – In our body … Testable, reproducible research, and yet some people take it less seriously, purely because it does not come from a prescribed pill. ”
Can sensory benefits also reinforce each other?
“Yes, think of a ‘living’ green wall indoors. That is not only visually pleasant, but also improves air quality and even seems to improve the microbiome. And those who walk around in a park or forest with both singing birds and natural scents recovers, according to Swedish research, faster than someone who does not smell nature but does not hear.”
So: more green in the office garden and no headphones on in nature?
“Exactly. Try not to listen a podcast next time during your running round through the forest, but just to absorb the nature sounds. I only use my own headphones when I walk past a busy motorway.”