Delivering subject content through nine life themes
The idea that there is a link between, on the one hand, regular interaction with nature and the environment and, on the other, health and wellbeing is now widely accepted, so it is disappointing – if not particularly surprising – to hear that people in the UK are apparently spending less time in nature than they did at the time of the various lockdowns and other Covid-related restrictions a few years ago. We blog regularly about the health benefits for people of all ages of getting out and about and enjoying our green spaces. To state the obvious, time spent in nature is something to be encouraged, promoted and supported. And at the heart of Life-Based Learning is the belief that children and young people need to be learning about and – crucially – experiencing nature and the environment in a thorough and systematic way.
Figures published recently by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – under the heading Time spent in nature – suggest that an estimated 1.1 million fewer people across the UK gained health benefits from spending time in nature in 2022 compared with two years earlier (at the height of the Covid pandemic). The amount of time spent in nature is now back to levels last seen in 2019, significantly down from a pandemic-influenced peak in 2020.
The ONS has even calculated a monetary cost to the lost health benefits – around £390 million, which equates to £356 per person on average. To put it another way, it is equivalent In health terms to more than 22,000 years of life in perfect health lost across people in the UK, says the ONS.
The monetary cost was calculated based on how much it is thought the NHS would be willing to spend if it used treatments to achieve equivalent health benefits to those gained from time spent in nature. The findings form part of the ONS’s “UK natural capital accounts: 2023”, which estimate the value of the UK’s natural wealth and what it provides for future generations.
Two years ago we applauded a landmark UK Treasury-commissioned review that proposed changing how we measure national wealth, moving away from equating progress with GDP and recognising the importance of natural capital.
And in December 2021 we highlighted a report calculating the benefit in monetary terms of woodland visits — nearly £200 million per year.
Life-Based Learning puts life itself at the forefront of learning. It is about helping children acquire knowledge, skills, values and practices that they will carry with them through adult life. A key focus is educating future generations to live in harmony with the needs of the planet.
Children and young people need to be learning about the value of nature and the environment and about the environmental challenges humanity faces in the short and medium term. This includes empowering young people to take practical action to promote sustainability and help make a difference.
Life-Based Learning (LBL) aims to ensure that:
We blog regularly about the health benefits for people of all ages of getting out and about and enjoying nature and the environment. For example, in our blog Getting involved with nature is a great way to deal with eco-anxiety, we highlighted the growing popularity of ‘green social prescribing’ – where individuals and, increasingly, health and community services use nature to boost mental wellbeing.
We have argued in such blogs that:
Image at the head of this article by Trung Nguyễn from Pixabay.
