Nature Makes Us Nicer People, New Study Says

Article from Treehugger

by Jaymi Heimbuch

Don't disregard those wall calendars showing far-off nature scenes quite yet. It just might make you a more caring, community-oriented, and generous person. A new study by the University of Rochester found that after looking at nature scenes, people feel closer to their community, are willing to give more money to a charitable cause, and care more about social outcomes than they are after looking at man-made scenes. The reason, the researchers state, it communing with nature helps people also commune with their basic values.

The University of Rochester reports what we all have been savvy to for awhile now, that seeing naturescapes helps reduces stress, and even having a window in a hospital room helps people recover more quickly. "While the salubrious effects of nature are well documented... this study shows that the benefits extend to a person's values and actions. Exposure to natural as opposed to man-made environments leads people to value community and close relationships and to be more generous with money, find [Richard] Ryan and his team of researchers at the University of Rochester.

From experiments including 370 participants, the results show that after viewing urban settings or natural settings, people exposed to natural settings rated close relationships and community higher than they had before seeing the scenes, whereas after viewing urban settings, people placed more value on wealth and fame. Additionally, those who viewed nature scenes were more likely to give higher amounts of money to a good cause.

"Lead author Netta Weinstein says that the findings highlight the importance of creating green spaces in cities and have implication for planners and architects. Incorporating parks and other representations of nature into urban environments may help build a stronger sense of community among residents, she explains. By contrast, "to the extent that our links with nature are disrupted, we may also lose some connection with each other," the authors warn."

If it is the case that being around and seeing nature makes us more people-oriented and generous, perhaps we should flood the offices of Copenhagen delegates with plants, scenes from natural settings, and earthy furniture so that they're really ready to negotiate with the future of the planet front and center.

Need to see some nature now? Check out this slideshow of 20 Wild Spaces for Getting Back to Nature - It'll make you a nicer person.

Australian town bans bottled water

Bottled water is often criticised as an environmental menace.

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 9 July 2009 12.03 BST

Residents of a rural Australian town have voted to ban the sale of bottled water. They are possibly the first community in the world to take such a step.

Residents of Bundanoon cheered after their near-unanimous approval of the measure at a town meeting on Wednesday. It was the second blow to Australia's beverage industry in one day. Hours earlier, the New South Wales state premier banned all state departments and agencies from buying bottled water, calling it a waste of money and natural resources.

"I have never seen 350 Australians in the same room all agreeing to something," said Jon Dee, who helped spearhead the "Bundy on Tap" campaign in Bundanoon, a town of 2,500 about 100 miles south of Sydney. "It's time for people to realise they're being conned by the bottled water industry."

First popularised in the 1980s as a convenient, healthy alternative to sugary drinks, bottled water today is often criticised as an environmental menace, with bottles cluttering landfills and requiring large amounts of energy to produce and transport.

Over the past few years, at least 60 cities in the United States and a handful of others in Canada and the United Kingdom have agreed to stop spending taxpayer money on bottled water, which is often consumed during city meetings, said Deborah Lapidus, organiser of Corporate Accountability International's "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign in the US.

But the Boston-based nonprofit corporate watchdog has never heard of a community banning the sale of bottled water, she said.

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Green Planet Awards launches eco-eating and eco-activity competitions

A new non-profit green initiative, Green Planet Awards, is inviting the world to exciting competitions that are all about going green to cool the planet. Based in Europe, the Green Planet Award founders stated that they were originally inspired by watching Supreme Master Television to raise awareness especially toward how human eating habits are affecting the planet. In particular, their concern upon realizing that the meat industry adds more greenhouse gases to global warming than all transportation combined led to their theme of "Eco-Eating" for the 2009 Green Planet Awards competitions. In this premiere event, which is taking place throughout Ireland, university students are being asked to design the best awareness campaign on the environmental and health impacts of excessive meat consumption. Students displaying the most creative and diligent efforts through such media as flyers, songs, conferences, and other marketing techniques, will receive prizes, with the top award being an electric car.

Green Planet Awards is also hosting a second competition that is online and worldwide, called Green2Cool. This event's first prize of €1,500* will go to the most active member of the social networking website at http://www.green2cool.org/, meaning the person who is most influential in spreading the veg eco-eating trend and making the social space a success. Both the Green2Cool.org and GreenPlanetAwards.org websites provide media resources for those seeking up-to-date facts on climate change urgency and its relation to diet.

For more activity information, please visit http://www.greenplanetawards.org/ or http://www.green2cool.org/ for English, and http://www.green2cool.org.tw/ for Chinese

*The first prize has been risen to €3,000.