{"id":48130,"date":"2021-06-05T11:14:41","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T09:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=48130"},"modified":"2022-05-18T12:14:33","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T10:14:33","slug":"seven-reasons-cities-green-public-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/48130\/seven-reasons-cities-green-public-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven reasons why you should intensify your relationship with green and public spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The global Covid-19 pandemic has, for many, fundamentally changed our relationship to the outdoors. Even though green and public spaces have always been an important part of cities, multiple lockdowns have given us a new sense of just how important it is to get out of our homes and to be in contact with nature. <\/p>\n\n

\"Coronavirus
Prague seen during the shutdown due to Covid-19.
\u00a9 Petr Zewlakk Vrabec \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

For some, green spaces in our cities became a safe place for us to be when we were feeling stressed, anxious or trapped. We discovered that being outside was one of the best things we could do to lift our mood and spirit.  The sound of the wind in the trees, the smell of nature, even the rain on our faces \u2014 heading out for a walk or a bike ride allowed some city residents to reconnect with the wider world and our communities in a safe way.<\/p>\n\n

\"Cycling
A little girl heads to the park on her bike in Berkhamsted, UK.
\u00a9 Elizabeth Dalziel \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Those moments have made many of us realise how critical green and public spaces are for our mental and physical well-being. We also realised how little access to good quality green and public space there is in most of our global cities.<\/p>\n\n

Aside from the physical and mental health benefits provided by green spaces and trees in cities, they can also play a key role in mitigating the effects of environmental threats such as climate change and biodiversity loss \u2014 naturally cooling streets and homes, and providing precious habitat to local wildlife and insects.<\/p>\n\n

\"'Cities
An urban garden in the ‘Cities without Hunger’ project in Sao Paulo.
\u00a9 Peter Caton \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Good practices in urban planning suggest that every resident should be able to see at least three trees from their home; cities should have 30% of canopy cover as a minimum at neighbourhood level; and people should find a green space at a maximum distance of 300 metres from their home. This is known as the 3-30-300 Rule<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong> Applying this rule will improve and expand the local urban forest in many cities, and with that promote health, well-being, and resilience across increasingly populated global cities.<\/p>\n\n

Things are improving. In the last 15 years the availability and accessibility of urban green spaces in 28 megacities worldwide increased respectively by 4.11% and 7.1% <\/p>\n\n

However  there is still  a long way to go \u2014 only a handful of cities fully meet the World Health Organization recommendations on green-space availability that sets a minimum standard of 9m\u00b2 per inhabitant. Ideally, this should be 50m\u00b2 per capita<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n

\"Coronavirus
Two people sit on a bench in Zurich during the coronavirus (COVID-19) shutdown.
\u00a9 Jo\u00ebl Hunn \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

It is not just us as residents who must be aware of the urgency and need to create greener cities. Mayors and local authorities must take responsibility for greening cities with fair and equal access for all, while leading an urgent ecological transition to tackle the climate and health crisis. <\/p>\n\n

Here are seven reasons why we need greener cities now: <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n
  1. Mental Health: <\/strong>Contact with green spaces is associated with lower risk of stress and psychiatric conditions such as depression and anxiety. There is growing evidence for the beneficial effects of green space on mental health linked to improvements in behavioural development.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n
    1. Brain Development & Cognitive Function: <\/strong>Long term exposure to green space can reduce the risk of behavioural and emotional problems and enhances cognitive development, including improved attention and working memory. Green space can play an especially crucial role in children\u2019s brain and cognitive development. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n
      1. Other Non-communicable Diseases: <\/strong>Contact with green spaces is associated with lowered risk of cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, obesity and lower back pain. Considering that non-communicable diseases are responsible for the equivalent of 71% of all deaths globally, the global benefit of more accessible green spaces could be huge<\/a>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n
        1. Mortality: <\/strong>More green space in residential areas is associated with reduced all-cause premature mortality because of lower exposure to air pollution, people doing more physical activity, stronger perceived social engagement, and a reduced risk of depression<\/a>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n
          1. Pregnancy Outcomes: <\/strong>Access to green space is positively associated with increased length of gestation, reducing the risk of preterm birth<\/a>, infant mortality, and negative long-time outcomes during childhood and beyond.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n
            1. Perceived General Health: <\/strong>More contact with green spaces has been consistently associated with an improved perception of general health and also subjective well-being \u2014 things like feeling more happiness and satisfaction with life.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n
              1. Reduced hospitalisation and recovery time: <\/strong>Exposure to green space helps to avoid hospitalization due to the development of healthier physical and psychological conditions, and reduces the recovery period<\/a> after treatments and operations. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n

                The \u2018cherry on the cake\u2019 is that not only <\/strong>are green spaces beneficial to our health and well-being, <\/strong> scientific discoveries, presented in our report Greening the City<\/a>, have found that urban civic spaces, like squares, historical sites and panoramic points of view have similar health benefits as green parks do. We must preserve and introduce more green and civic spaces in cities \u2014 in ways that are accessible for all \u2014 to create liveable cities for future generations.<\/p>\n\n

                Celia Ojeda-Mart\u00ednez, Chiara Campione and Alessandro Saccoccio work together on the #HackYourCity campaign for Greenpeace International.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n

                <\/p>\n

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                Green public spaces have a multitude of benefits for people and planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":48158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70,73],"tags":[91],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-48130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-health","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48130"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53810,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48130\/revisions\/53810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48130"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=48130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}