Learning Module | Connecting with Nature
Chapter One
1. Current challenges
Overview
This section outlines some of the current challenges that our population faces and how we can look to nature as part of the solution.
In addition to the mental and physical distress [1] related to climate change, Canada is already facing the concurrent challenge of an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and mental health disorders. 20% of Canadians live with at least one of the following common chronic diseases: cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and or respiratory diseases, and this number is increasing.
Further, the primary cause of workplace disability within Canada is due to mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. [1]
The looming threat of climate change only threatens to exacerbate these issues. The Lancet Planetary Health has declared climate change to be one of the greatest threats to global health in the 21st century, and there is an increasing level of awareness as to how it negatively impacts health. [2]
This section acts to provide information on the concurrent threats to overall human well-being, including: climate change, urbanization, COVID-19 pandemic, physical inactivity, sedentary behaviour, and loneliness.
By reviewing the challenges, we aim to highlight the need for nature connection and demonstrate how we can turn to nature to mitigate threats.
Urbanization, physical inactivity, & sedentary behaviour
In Canada, movement away from rural to urban areas continues to increase, with over 80% of the population now living in cities. [3] Urbanization is associated with increased levels of mental illness, and is associated with less opportunity to connect with nature on a regular basis. [4,5,6]
This is of high importance as the Canadian Health Agency found that 90% of Canadians’ time is spent indoors [7], and sedentary behaviour and physical inactivity are increasing. In Canadian children and youth, 90% and 50% failed to meet the physical activity and sedentary behaviour guidelines, respectively. In addition, physical inactivity is seen in 78% of adults. [2]
Surrounding green space has been associated with improved mental health and well-being, highlighting the importance of ensuring accessibility to nature in urban environments, and encouraging, and communicating different ways to connect to nature on a regular basis. [8]
Loneliness, Mental Health, & the COVID-19 Pandemic
Considering the increasing amount of urbanization, integration of technology, and use of social media, it is without surprise that even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, levels of loneliness were on the rise. 1/5 of Canadians identify as being lonely, and over 40% of older adults experience loneliness. [9] This has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, where social distancing and isolation have become the norm, leading to increased feelings of loneliness amongst Canadians, especially amongst those who have the lowest mental health score. [10] More than ever, the importance for our population to connect to nature is apparent, and this can lead to increasing feelings of social cohesion, connection, and a reduced sense of loneliness. [11,12, 13] Further, according to an ongoing study by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), mental health amongst Canadians has deteriorated by 40% since the onset of the pandemic, especially amongst the most vulnerable groups such as adolescents, indigenous peoples, women, and disabled peoples. [14]. Specifically, this CMHA study found anxiety levels reported to have increased by 48% and stress levels by 38% since the onset of the pandemic.
Specific challenges to the well-being of healthcare professionals
As healthcare professionals, there are unique challenges that we face towards our well-being.
Two of the most notable are physician burnout and depression.
From the mental health impacts of a changing climate, to the COVID-19 pandemic and a highly demanding profession, it is vital to advocate for our own health and opportunities to achieve an appropriate work-life balance.
A national survey of Canadian ER physicians prior to the COVID-19 pandemic found an alarming 86% of respondents met the threshold for burnout, and 14% reported having contemplated suicide in their career. [15]
Despite there being reports of high resilience and well-being amongst physicians, the Canadian Medical Association National Health Survey found the following:
30% of respondents reported experiencing burnout (defined by high emotional exhaustion and/ depersonalization)
34% of respondents experienced depression
1/10 respondents thought of suicide over the past year
Highest rates of burnout and depression found amongst residents, doctors within their first 5 years of practice, and females. [16]
Increasing awareness about the health benefits of connecting to nature amongst healthcare practitioners and advocating for increased green spaces within and near the workplace to facilitate nature connection as a strategy is a good place to start.
Chronic Environmental Stressors of Climate Change on Mental Health
The impact of acute extreme weather events such as flooding or wildfires on mental health is a relatively well-studied entity that receives a lot of attention. However, more chronic environmental stressors, such as prolonged drought, changing weather patterns, and loss of meaningful landscapes and their negative impacts on mental health are much more unfamiliar and difficult to recognize due to their insidious nature and temporal dispersion. As discussed above, there is an alarming increase in the Global Burden of Disease of mental health disorders worldwide, especially anxiety and depression. As these rates continue to increase, as does the increasing incidence of environmental change, it is crucial that healthcare practitioners begin to learn how to identify and understand both acute and chronic environmental stressors and their negative impacts on communities’ and individuals’ mental health.
This section introduces concepts that help to give greater meaning and understanding of the psychological impact of chronic environmental stressors. Australian environmental philosopher, Glenn Albrecht created the term “psycho- terratic” states to define earth-related mental illnesses where people’s mental well-being (psyche) is threatened by the severing of ‘healthy’ links between themselves and their home territory. [17] This term allows us to better understand certain emotional states such as loss of control and identity, hopelessness, loss of sense of “place”, distress from inability to derive solace from home environment and more.
Concepts developed to give greater meaning and understanding to Chronic Environmental Stressors:
Eco - Anxiety
Eco - Paralysis
Examples of Chronic Environmental Stressors: [19]
Strain of hotter temperatures, drought, water shortages, food shortages
Changes in weather patterns
Distress of job losses and income reductions
Loss of meaningful landscapes, such as changes to home environment
Distress from loss of sense of “place”
Impacts of illness and disease
“We are people of the sea ice.
If there’s no more sea ice, how can we be people of the sea ice?”
- Member of the Inuit Community in Nain, Nunatsiavut
a self-governing Inuit region in northern Labrador, Canada
Watch the film: Lament for the Land, A collaboration between researcher Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo Willox and the five communities of Nunatsiavut.
Ecological Grief
The grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change. [21]
Understanding Ecological Grief through research in Inuit Communities in Northern Canada and Farming Communities in rural Australia
Three Main Ecological Grief Concepts: Physical Ecological Losses, Disruptions to Environmental Knowledge & Loss of Identity, Anticipated future losses
These 3 concepts were based upon the main recurring themes of ecological grief experienced in relation to environmental change in the two above environmentally distinct communities.
Both of these communities hold a strong relationship between the land, their well-being, and work. The communities are within landscapes that are significantly affected by climate change
1. Physical Ecological Losses
“Slow violence” - gradual, ongoing ecological changes.
Disruption to the sense of place and connection to the land.
Often accompanied by strong emotional reactions: anger, sadness, frustration, anxiety, distress, hopelessness.
2. Disruptions to Environmental Knowledge & Loss of Identity
Concept of personal and collective understanding of identity often understood in relation to land including its physical features, uses and knowledge of it.
Example: Elders expressed loss of a cultural system of land based knowledge that could be confidently passed through generations due to changes in environment.
3. Anticipated Future Losses
Grief in anticipation of ecological changes that have not yet occurred. Also associated with grief of future losses to culture, livelihoods and ways of life
Associated with strong emotions such as anxiety - increase prevalence, impact children with “doom and gloom”.
Solastalgia
A term created by Glenn Albrecht to describe the emotional or existential distress that is produced by environmental change that impacts people while they are directly connected to their home environment. It is the opposite of nostalgia. [20] People are in their home environments, but they experience feelings of homesickness, and lack the feeling of ‘solace’ derived from their relationship to ‘home’.
Understanding Solastalgia through research in two different rural communities in New South Wales
Background: This research compares components of solastalgia found by researchers from interviewing participants in two different communities in New South Wales, Australia. In the Upper Hunter Region, it was subject to rapidly expanding open-cut coal mining from 1987 - 2004, and in the other community, they have been experiencing severe, persistent drought since 2001.
Home environment changes: Both communities have experienced ongoing, profound changes to their home landscape and long term impacts on the health of their ecosystem due to these chronic human and environmental stressors.
Recurrent themes of solastalgia:
Loss of ecosystem health and corresponding sense of place, personal identity: Some participants in farming communities noted a reluctance to be outside on their property unless necessary, and that their sense of home was negatively changed by the loss of a garden.
Feelings of injustice and/ or powerlessness of the situation.
Threats to personal health and wellbeing: Negative emotional effect related to changes to home landscape, examples of avoidant behaviour towards going outside due to outdoor environment.
“Many people sense that something is wrong with our relationship with the planet. This unease might just be an expression of deep-seated solastalgia”