Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 303 posts

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#171

Post by 0des »

radicality wrote: post #27
0des wrote: post #12

Nature has an allure, whether it is a window by your desk, or plants in your office. This year I made a resolution to add more plants to my office and home, and slowly both are filling up with various ferns and mosses and other indoor plants. The relaxing effects of being able to walk over to the garden shelf and have my thoughts to myself while I inspect them is something you don't get to enjoy often. If you find yo…

Any resources you can recommend to learn more about house plants / how to choose them / how to care for them? So far I have a snake plant and an orchid but want to get more.

Actually yes, there is a person named Planterina on YouTube with the most charming personality. There is a whole community for houseplants on YouTube, you'll see what I mean in the suggested videos. There is also a soft spoken young man by the name of Benjiplant, his videos always seem to pop up after I've been watching Planterina.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#172

Post by losvedir »

I totally believe in the value of being in nature. It's hard to go for a walk surrounded by trees and chirping birds and not come away happier and refreshed, in my experience.

But I'm more skeptical about this in the article:

> Need a quick break from your "work screen time" for some "fun screen time?" There's a nature fix for that: Check out the #FindThatLizard game on Twitter and Instagram. Science communicator and herpetologist Earyn McGee posts a picture of a lizard "camouflaged in its natural environment, and people have to find the lizard in the photo." You don't even have to leave your couch to play.

I can't imagine there's the same benefits to looking at nature on Instagram or Twitter.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#174

Post by throwaway894345 »

ryukafalz wrote: post #154
throwaway894345 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear a lot of them argue about how rural people waste space and how they’re sick of subsidizing rural infrastructure and we should impose policies which further incentivize people to migrate from rural to urban areas. The thrust of the issue seems to be directed at suburbs (if only because many of these folks are only marginally aware of the world beyond the suburbs), but rural life is still wholly incompatible wit…

> and how they’re sick of subsidizing rural infrastructure I mean, it’s fine if you want to live somewhere rural, but why should that be subsidized?

I’m fine with not subsidizing it but we subsidize all sorts of public goods—schools, libraries, etc. It’s not exactly unusual.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#175

Post by quickthrower2 »

cameronh90 wrote: post #137
toshk wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was walking in Glasgow, everything felt grey, bland and depressive. At some point I realized they have zero trees in the streets. Also means no bird sounds in the background, no green leaves adding some colors to the concrete, no blossoming in the spring. Being in a city where every street is filled with trees I realized how big of an impact it is. It is however not "easy", the old big trees you want, destroy your…

This is similar to the feeling I get when I travel from London to Manchester. While I know London isn't everyone's cup of tea, it has a ton of parks, trees and nature compared to many other cities, and it's usually quick to dip away from the bustle into a relatively quiet oasis. You're rarely more than a 5 minute walk away from a small park.

Sydney takes this to another level, being lots of parks and lots of suburbia (which unfortunately means more car reliance, but there is a lot of green space). Even lots of beaches and a national park!

I imagine a lot of it is “topographically forced” by the harbour / rivers intruding everywhere.

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#176

Post by amarant »

piva00 wrote: post #133
diob wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is part of why I love visiting Japan, so much nature scattered throughout otherwise urban areas. Lot's of other places in the world like it as well. Makes me jealous since I love in the concrete wasteland that is Phoenix.

Sweden is pretty similar, lots and lots of nature with urban areas scattered on it. Stockholm, as an example, does it very well: a dense but small city-centre with lots of parks and greenery with the remaining sprawl outside the centre being scattered urban areas in the middle of the green with great public transportation connections.

Stockholm is almost cheating though, with all the water flowing through the city.

What's impressive though is that Stockholm manages to keep (most of) that water clean, and you can go swimming in the city center, without ever visiting a swimming pool!

Re: Nature has enormous emotional and cognitive benefits on people

#179

Post by swah »

neoromantique wrote: post #168
swah wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nature is also against walkability when it puts frigging hills on my way! Also the weather is way too agressive near the equator... I can endure it with sports clothes but not before work. Seriously: walking/cycling on Amsterdam, Lisbon or Paris when the weather is 15 °C, mostly on flat ways, is a pleasure. You arrive at the office just a little heated up, I imagine.

That’s just excuses though, people cycle even in Norway where it’s below freezing most of the year

Well... exercising in the cold makes you hotter, that makes sense. And I bet they have Canada-level of socks/parkas/etc which you can remove as you get hotter.
Post reply on HN