12th May 2021. Nature | Greenland
Nature and wellbeing; mining Greenland
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#1: Nature and wellbeing
The Finding Nature blog has a striking chart that connects country-level data on visits to nature with general levels of wellbeing. The two appear to be connected (more visits, better wellbeing) and the UK is near the bottom of the scale on both.
“Country level relationship between positive well-being (0–100) and Green space visits in last 4 weeks. From White et al. (2021).” Via findingnature.org.uk.
Finding Nature is Miles Richardson’s research blog, and the piece notes that the British like to think of themselves as a nation of nature-lovers, but this is clearly not true. The post hypothesizes that the stories about nature that are told in the UK might be stories of domination, and in turn this might be because people left the land earlier than elsewhere because of the Industrial Revolution:
Nature is often seen as a resource (utility), a source of challenges to conquer (dominion), presented in terms of facts and figures (science), or as a threat (fear of nature). These types of relationship are common, often emphasised within capitalistic societies and can be seen as essential pathways for human survival and progress that, unchecked, have led to nature’s decline.
“A graphical summary of the types of human-nature relationships, nature connectedness and their outcomes. Key: Pro-env. = pro-environmental (carbon & resource use reduction); Pro-nature = pro-nature conservation (wildlife habitat creation)”. Via findingnature.org.uk.
There’s a bit more analysis here that’s worth noting. He’s done some more work on the data and some of the relationships that sit inside it:
We looked at biodiversity, population density, urbanisation and tree cover for the 18 countries and how these factors related to nature connectedness and visits. We found a very strong correlation between biodiversity (National Biodiversity Index) and nature connectedness – and nature visits. The more wildlife there is in a country the greater the love of nature and likelihood people will go and visit it.
In turn there is a clear reinforcing loop between the different elements here:
The UK has much lower levels of biodiversity and nature connectedness – and we know that the two are related. Our previous research has shown that people are good a spotting biodiversity and that higher levels of biodiversity are linked to greater wellbeing – and more visible biodiversity helps build nature connectedness. And increased nature connectedness through noticing nature leads to greater wellbeing.
So more biodiversity might start rolling this relationship in the right direction. But Prof. Richardson also worries that the deep stories—domination over nature, rather than a positive relationship to it—may be at play. And deep stories are hard to change.
#2: Mining Greenland
Climate change is likely to be good for Greenland. A short piece in Engelsberg ideas notes that Donald Trump’s left-field offer to buy the place for a billion dollars was light by a couple of zeroes. The reason: Greenland is sitting on a pile of minerals, especially rare earths, that are in short supply globally:
It possesses immense quantities of rare earths, and scarce minerals. Although no-one has yet worked out how much – conditions are not ideal for geological exploration – known holdings could provide at least twenty-five per cent of the West’s needs for the indefinite future. Greenland also has vast resources of well-known minerals, including gold, copper, iron and lead, plus oil, plus seas full of fish. The 60,000 Greenlanders are about to become seriously rich.
Despite warming there are still technical and geopolitical issues involved in getting to these resources, but mining companies are all over it.
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