Nature acts as a medicine for man, mostly for residents of urban areas, where due to the climate change they are at risk of losing their permanent co-habitants, the sparrows and the swallows, noted professor Kevin J. Gaston, professor of biodiversity and biology at Exeter University, in an interview with Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).
Gaston, who was presented with an honorary doctorate from the department of Biology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on Wednesday, clarified, “My research showed that the breeding rate of the birds in Europe declined by 20 percent in the last 30 years. This decline is higher in the common birds that we expect to see in our everyday life, as sparrows and swallows, due to the lack of their habitats and because they are not under a strict state of supervision as are rare species,” he said.
The influence of everyday contact with nature on human health was part of Professor Gaston’s research. “We have studied with my team three parametres: how often the people of the cities visit areas in nature, the duration of these visits, and where exactly they go. We reached the conclusion that the frequency of the visits to green areas is very beneficial,” stressed Gaston and called nature “a medicine” for human beings today.
“Cities are closely linked with lack of exercise and obesity, stress and depression”, he concluded.
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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Costas78 License: CC-BY-SA
Source: ANA-MPA
