{"id":6990,"date":"2020-11-19T13:15:52","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T18:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/?p=6990"},"modified":"2020-12-02T10:23:28","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T15:23:28","slug":"the-benefits-of-parks-on-our-mental-health-happiness-iq-and-the-environment-by-paula-bernardino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/the-benefits-of-parks-on-our-mental-health-happiness-iq-and-the-environment-by-paula-bernardino\/","title":{"rendered":"The benefits of parks on our mental health, happiness, IQ… and the environment by Paula Bernardino"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This piece was submitted to the\u00a0Citizen Journal<\/strong>\u00a0project of the Peter-McGill Community Council. Please note that the opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of our organisation. This project aims to create space for the voices of residents, students and friends of the neighbourhood through articles, photos, videos and podcasts (as well as other mediums).\u00a0 Are you interested in contributing?\u00a0 Contact us at \u00a0benevolat@petermcgill.org<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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It\u2019s thanks to the long walks and readings breaks in parks that I was able to get through the anxiety from the pandemic. It has now become a habit of mine, especially on Fridays. That is why I really enjoyed reading this article published in the Montreal Gazette August 18:\u00a0Parks more important than ever during pandemic<\/a>. I couldn\u2019t agree more on importance of parks. “Think tank poll found 82 per cent of respondents said parks were crucial to their mental health during the coronavirus crisis<\/em>.”<\/p>

I am so grateful to have discovered so many beautiful parks in Montreal. And it\u2019s been so fun to see so many people rediscover their local parks during the pandemic. I saw family barbecues happening in parks, I saw birthday celebrations and I even saw a wedding being celebrated in a park.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Also in August I came across another interesting article, this time in Euro News, that highlighted the results of a study in Belgium that found that\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>children raised in greener environments have higher IQs<\/em>\u201d (Growing up in green spaces boosts children\u2019s IQs, claims study<\/a>). The study showed that \u201cjust a three per cent increase in the greenness of a child\u2019s neighbourhood raised their IQ score by 2.6 points on average<\/em>\u201d. Isn\u2019t this a great argument to push for more greening urban spaces?<\/p>

And not only are parks and green spaces beneficial for our mental health and IQ, but also for the environment. An article in National Geographic in May 2019 mentioned that as cities across the U.S. are seeing worse floods and hotter summers, experts believe urban parks can help residents cope. \u201cAs cities increasingly feel the impacts of rising seas and temperatures, city planners are rethinking the roles of urban parks<\/em>\u201d (As the climate crisis worsens, cities turn to parks<\/a>). Especially in cities with a lot of asphalt that collect heat, those neighbourhoods need the cooling effect of green spaces. \u201cParks can ultimately provide a sort of social resilience, in addition to cooling neighbourhoods and absorbing floodwater<\/em>.\u201d And as Diane Regas, CEO of The Trust for Public Land beautifully expresses: \u201cParks are an example of what we in the environmental advocacy community need to do to embrace solutions that simultaneously address climate change and make people\u2019s lives better<\/em><\/a>.\u201d<\/p>

In her article\u00a0<\/strong>Urban greening is better for citizens and fights climate change<\/a>\u00a0also published in May 2019 (so before COVID-19),\u00a0<\/strong>Heather Alberro\u00a0(LSE), Associate Lecturer and PhD Candidate in Political Ecology from Nottingham Trent University,\u00a0<\/em>also connected these dots writing\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Urban greenery\u00a0wouldn\u2019t just help lessen the impacts of climate change and improve air quality.\u00a0Evidence\u00a0from a range of disciplines has uncovered numerous social, psychological, and health benefits of human exposure to\u00a0green spaces. These include stress and anxiety reduction,\u00a0improved cognitive functioning, lowered risks of depression, and overall greater mental and physical\u00a0wellbeing<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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As a Climate Reality ambassador I always mention the importance of parks and green spaces in my presentations. I am lucky to only live 5 minutes away from the McGill campus, which is one of my favourite green spots in town. And what a difference to go through it on a hot sticky day during a heat wave \u2013 the cooling effect is instant!<\/p>

I encourage people to get involved in their local neighbourhood greening actions. The city of Montreal is lucky to have many\u00a0green alleyway<\/em>\u00a0programs, which citizens can initiate with the support of their borough: see\u00a0Green alleyways<\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Every borough also has an \u201c\u00e9co-quartier\u201d whose mission is\u00a0<\/strong>to improve the quality of the environment in the district for the benefit of the community, through public awareness and outreach activities aimed at residents, organizations and businesses. I feel so lucky to have such an active one as the\u00a0\u00e9co-quartier Peter-McGill<\/a>\u00a0constantly encourages residents downtown Montreal to explore gardening in our urban settings. For me, my balcony becomes my urban garden during the summer.<\/p>

\u201cPlants can\u00a0help cool cities\u00a0through the water that evaporates from their leaves when exposed to the sun\u2019s rays, and by shading surfaces that otherwise might have absorbed heat,\u201d writes Heather Alberro\u00a0.\u00a0She goes on with \u201cresearch\u00a0has found that on a sunny day, a single healthy tree can have the cooling power of more than ten air-conditioning units\u201d. Whoa! Amazing!<\/p>

So many reasons to embrace our parks and green spaces!<\/p>

#climatechange #climatecrisis #greenspaces #parks<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Article written by: Paula Bernardino, MCM, CSR-P, SCMP\u00ae<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This piece was submitted to the\u00a0Citizen Journal\u00a0project of the Peter-McGill Community Council. Please note that the opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of our organisation. This project aims to create space for the voices of residents, students and friends of the neighbourhood through articles, photos, videos and podcasts (as well as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,38,53,167,2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6990"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7180,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6990\/revisions\/7180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}