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Home > CrowdScience > Do green spaces make us healthier?


	Podcast:		CrowdScience
	Episode:		Do green spaces make us healthier?
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:33:27
	Publish Date:		2019-10-04 14:45:00
	Description:		Trees and plants have been quietly growing in the background of our everyday lives for as long as we’ve existed. Now, as millions of us move into densely populated cities for work, school and healthcare, our green neighbours have been replaced by brick, concrete, steel and glass. We know that plants are vital for absorbing our waste carbon dioxide and providing us with oxygen. Would remote rural forests do that job for us, or is there more to living alongside greenery? CrowdScience listener Enrica from Italy thinks there is. She loves walking along the verdant riverbank near her home after a hard week at work. It makes her feel better, and she wants to know why. Which as it turns out, is a question that scientists across the globe are also trying to answer. The work they’ve done so far has been enough to convince governments around the world that it is worth investing taxpayer’s money in urban planting schemes. One scheme is in Milan, Italy. Home to Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic “The Last Supper” and the San Siro, home of AC Milan, Inter Milan and the largest football stadium in Italy. But city officials have been working hard to increase the city’s the green features, committing to planting 3 million trees and building twenty new parks by 2030. CrowdScience presenter Anand Jagatia visits Milan’s innovative Bosco Verticale - a vertical forest planted on two tower blocks and discovers that research is showing that greener cities could help those living there by providing spaces for daily physical activity. It’s hoped they could also provide cooling microclimates to reduce the dangers of summer heat, and improve our mental health. (Photo: Tree lined "tunnel" in the English countryside of West Sussex. Credit: Getty Images)
	Total Play:		1