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Charting a Path to Health for All at Net-Zero Emissions
Climate change is the defining health challenge of the 21st century, with record-breaking temperatures and extreme weather events already exacting an unprecedented toll on human health and wellbeing. Scientific consensus is clear: rapid and deep reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 are needed not only to reduce the risks of exceeding climate tipping points beyond which irreversible damage occurs to natural systems, but also to safeguard human health, wellbeing, and equity. Despite growing awareness of the climate–health nexus, climate interventions often fail to consider opportunities to maximise co-benefits.
Read moreInequitable Changes to Time Spent in Urban Nature During COVID-19: A Case Study of Seattle, WA with Asian, Black, Latino, and White Residents
Figure 1. Change to average frequency of urban nature interaction among each racial/ethnic group The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone in urban areas. Some of these impacts in the United States have negatively affected People of Color more than their White counterparts. Using Seattle, Washington as a case study, we investigated whether inequitable effects appear in residents’ interactions with urban nature (such as urban green space). Using a 48-question instrument, 300 residents were surveyed, equally divided across four racial/ethnic groups: Asian, Black and African American, Latino/a/x, and White. Results showed that during the span of about 6 months after the onset of the pandemic, Black and Latino residents experienced a significant loss of time in urban nature, while Asian and White residents did not. The implications of these findings, including inequities in the potential buffering effects of urban nature against COVID-19 and the future of urban nature conservation, are discussed. Multiple variables were tested for association with the changes to time spent in urban nature, including themes of exclusion from urban nature spaces found throughout the existing literature. Findings show that decreases in time spent in urban nature among Black and Latino residents may be associated with their feeling as though they did not belong in urban nature. We provide recommendations based on these findings for how government agencies can promote more equitable access to urban nature during the pandemic and beyond. The results of this study have implications that extend beyond the US and are relevant to the international scholarly literature of inequities and urban nature interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read moreGeolocated Social Media as a Rapid Indicator of Park Visitation and Equitable Park Access
Figure 1. Alignment of Census block group, park and park buffer boundaries. The block group boundary in which Central Park is contained includes residential areas bordering the park. When population density within the 400m buffer is averaged over Census block groups, density of the residential areas bordering the park are underestimated due to the inclusion of the park’s area. Understanding why some parks are used more regularly or intensely than others can inform ways in which urban parkland is developed and managed to meet the needs of a rapidly expanding urban population. Although geolocated social media (GSM) indicators have been used to examine park visitation rates, studies applying this approach are generally limited to flagship parks, national parks, or a small subset of urban parks. Here, we use geolocated Flickr and Twitter data to explore variation in use across New York City’s 2143 diverse parks and model visitation based on spatially-explicit park characteristics and facilities, neighborhood-level accessibility features and neighborhood-level demographics. Findings indicate that social media activity in parks is positively correlated with proximity to public transportation and bike routes, as well as particular park characteristics such as water bodies, athletic facilities, and impervious surfaces, but negatively associated with green space and increased proportion of minority ethnicity and minority race in neighborhoods in which parks are located. Contrary to previous studies which describe park visitation as a form of nature-based recreation, our findings indicate that the kinds of green spaces present in many parks may not motivate visitation. From a social equity perspective, our findings may imply that parks in high-minority neighborhoods are not as accessible, do not accommodate as many visitors, and/or are of lower quality than those in low-minority neighborhoods. These implications are consistent with previous studies showing that minority populations disproportionately experience barriers to park access. In applying GSM data to questions of park access, we demonstrate a rapid, big data approach for providing information crucial for park management in a way that is less resource-intensive than field surveys.
Read moreInequality in Access to Cultural Ecosystem Services From Protected Areas in the Chilean Biodiversity Hotspot
Figure 1. Conceptual framework linking ecosystems as service providing areas, cultural ecosystem services and human benefits as supply and demand sides in human–environmental systems (adapted from (Burkhard et al., 2012; Cord et al., 2017). The green and red arrows represent the potential forms of access of the population in the region to the protected areas that we predict will vary according to their socioeconomic characteristics (the thick of the arrow represent population size and the length of the arrow represent the distance travelled along the road network). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) Experiences with nature through visits to protected areas provide important cultural ecosystem services that have the potential to strengthen pro-environmental attitudes and behavior. Understanding accessibility to protected areas and likely preferences for enjoying the benefits of nature visits are key factors in identifying ways to reduce inequality in access and inform the planning and management for future protected areas. We develop, at a regional scale, a novel social media database of visits to public protected areas in part of the Chilean biodiversity hotspot using geotagged photographs and assess the inequality of access using the home locations of the visitors and socio-economic data. We find that 20% of the population of the region make 87% of the visits to protected areas. The larger, more biodiverse protected areas were the most visited and provided most cultural ecosystem services. Wealthier people tend to travel further to visit protected areas while people with lower incomes tend to visit protected areas that are closer to home. By providing information on the current spatial flows of people to protected areas, we demonstrate the need to expand the protected area network, especially in lower income areas, to reduce inequality in access to the benefits from cultural ecosystem services provided by nature to people.
Read moreTrends and Knowledge Gaps in the Study of Nature-Based Participation by Latinos in the United States
Figure 1. Cumulative studies (n = 108) by publication year that relate to participation in nature-based activities by Latino communities. Studies include those that focused solely on Latino populations as well as cross-ethnic comparisons that included Latinos. Mounting evidence supports health and well-being benefits associated with nature experiences, while also highlighting race- and class-based inequalities in access and exposure. We synthesized the literature on nature contact by Latinos in the United States to assess the state of knowledge and strategically identify research needs to improve outcomes and reduce health disparities for this rapidly growing ethnic group. Our systematic review revealed 108 articles with a notable increase in number of papers over the past 3 decades. We noted that the body of research is focused on certain demographic targets (adults in urban areas) with a relative dearth of knowledge for others (children, seniors, and rural areas). Our analysis also revealed strong compartmentalizing of studies into research “clusters” based on nonoverlapping topics and types of outcomes that are measured. Although one-third of studies explored health outcomes, these studies rarely examined other outcomes or research topics. Moreover, less than 7% of studies reported on interventions. Given the potential for nature contact to enhance health and well-being, there is substantial need for multidisciplinary research that explores interactions between social, cultural, and economic factors, and how those ultimately relate to nature contact and outcomes for Latinos in the United States.
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