Finding Nature

A blog update has been overdue, I’ve been busy writing papers and preparing for Nature Connections 2015, amongst other things – so a few research papers to catch-up on.

Firstly, a meta-analysis by McMahan and Estes on the effect of contact with nature on positive emotions. A meta-analysis is important as it brings together results from multiple studies, 32 in this case, with 2356 people. Across all these studies exposure to nature was associated with increases in positive emotion, or affect. This was combined with a smaller decrease in negative emotion.

The studies combined within this analysis used real and laboratory based exposure to nature, which itself was either wild or managed. Importantly, exposure to real nature had a larger effect than laboratory simulations – a technological, virtual reality solution to nature’s decline is not the way I’d want to go! Interestingly, the type of nature did not matter – managed, urban natural spaces were as good as wilderness areas. Finally, the impact of nature was greater as the samples of people became older.

Finding nature in an urban park.

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Nature Connections 2015, an interdisciplinary conference to examine routes to nature connectedness, is about 10 weeks away and we can now reveal the draft sessions and speakers, see below.

Owing to the state of nature and the benefits to human wellbeing there is a growing interest in our connection to nature. As these benefits become more apparent the timing is right for a focused event to bring together practitioners, researchers and beyond to consider routes to nature connection. Come and join us for Nature Connections 2015, booking open.

NC2015 – draft sessions and speakers.

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As it’s New Year’s Day this post is simply the opening of Chapter 1, ‘Searching for New Year’, from A Blackbird’s Year: Mind in Nature. This excerpt starts to explain how my creative writing about nature underpins my research into connection to nature. Illustrations by Danielle Callaghan

Searching for New Year

1^st January to 29^th January

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As is typical, an end of year summary post. Being a scientific type it’s stats driven, in contrast to my personal highlight, thinking about nature’s beauty – I’ll cover that, and the most popular posts at the end of the post. First up are some popular tweets, which are also worth reflecting on.

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This post is based on a seed of an idea I’d like to develop more fully, but busy doing other things, including a recent conversation about the phrase connection to nature. It is becoming more widely used, which is great, but what does it mean?

Firstly, I’m happy with the term ‘connection to nature’, some suggest ‘connection to’ infers nature and humans are separate, technically they maybe correct, but it is a straightforward and understandable term being used more and more by conservation organisations, politicians, wildlife tv presenters and researchers.

So, what is a connection to, or with, nature? The academic research into human-nature relationships offers a few perspectives. It could be an extended sense of self, an identity that includes nature – a cognitive belief about our place in the natural world. Or a relationship commitment, a belonging to a wider community. Or it’s about emotional affinity, seeing nature as a source of awe and beauty, rather than an object of observation.

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