syrinx

Call it the poor man's health insurance policy, if you will. Casting aside fear of cultural stereotyping as, uh, folks who don't believe in throwing away money, researchers at two Scottish universities delved into the statistics and noticed that the presence of green spaces reduces visits by the grim reaper,

Across the country, there are "health inequalities" related to income and social deprivation, which generally reflect differences in lifestyle, diet, and, to some extent, access to medical care.
This means that in general, people living in poorer areas are more likely to be unhealthy, and die earlier.
However, the researchers found that living near parks, woodland or other open spaces helped reduce these inequalities, regardless of social class.

Me, I've turned my little eighth of an acre of subdivision into a wildlife refuge and maybe both the native flora and fauna as well as this old man will chill out a little while longer...and without wasting resources, natural or imaginary, like monetary systems. The picture on the left is my front yard. The one on the right is from the NY Times. I'm not poor, but I'm not rich. I got laid off and retired earlier this year. The folks on the right are an illustration of a story of the highest unemployment rate in 14 years (and you know how they fudge THOSE numbers to make them look better than they really are!) I recently had a heart stress test on the treadmill and I'm good to go for another 5 years. Folks on the right - rich or poor or middle class - they look like they could use a little greens pace around them right about now. And remember: manure, like money, works best when it's distributed widely so that all the plants in the garden get a little and every flower gets a chance to bloom.

tags: stress health visual literacy greenspace