How Environmental Generational Amnesia Affects Our Mental Health

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Robin Tricoles · BrainFacts · July 24, 2023

Interview with Peter Kahn, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member

Most people are familiar with amnesia, the inability to recall events that happen before or after a significant incident, such as a head injury. But what about environmental generational amnesia or EGA, the phenomena by which across generations, the norm for a healthy, natural world declines?

Each generation largely accepts the environment they are born into as nature’s norm, no matter how degraded that environment may be. Studies have shown that urbanization is linked to mental illness, such as depression, which is why access to nature in urbanized areas may improve mental health. A recent study even suggests greater exposure to green space may also slow genetic aging, though the effect varies across race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Another study indicates a 90-minute nature walk elicits beneficial neural activity in a part of the brain associated with depression and anxiety.

Peter Kahn, director of the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems (HINTS) Lab at the University of Washington, coined the phrase “environmental generational amnesia” and calls EGA “one of the fundamental, deepest psychological problems of our lifetime.” The psychology professor studies the rapid degradation of the natural world and the acceleration of technological advances. BrainFacts.org speaks with Kahn about how EGA affects our psyches and brains, as well as ways to address this collective blind spot and why it is necessary to do so. For Kahn, understanding EGA is where we start to fight climate change.

Ecopsychology Special Issue on Nature and Health—Part 1

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Almost two years ago the Ecopsychology journal partnered with the 2021 Nature and Health conference to solicit original manuscripts for a special issue of the journal, edited by Dr. Gregory N. Bratman and Dr. Hector A. Olvera Alvarez. That led to a huge number of terrific submissions.  Greg and Hector (assisted by Chrystal Dunker) led the peer-review process, and there were so many strong and cutting edge submissions that we decided to run two special issues on this topic! The first issue was just published online [liebertpub.com].  Good news, the publishers agreed to make this special issue free access until Oct 12, 2022!  So please take advantage of this opportunity to read and download the entire issue, or select articles.  The Table of Contents is copied below. The second issue will appear December 2022.

Best wishes,

Peter Kahn
Editor-in-Chief, Ecopsychology
Professor, Department of Psychology & School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
University of Washington

 

As Human Beings We Destroy Nature, but We Never Fully Realize the Extent of the Damage and Loss

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Audrey Garric · Le Monde · April 14, 2022

Featuring Peter Kahn, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member

Mr. Kahn is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington and director of a laboratory that conducts research on human interactions with nature and technology. He calls for a rethinking of our relationship with nature and with other humans in order to solve the climate crisis.

Scientists have been warning us about the environmental crisis for decades; its impact is worsening all over the world and yet, mobilization remains minimal. Why don’t we act in accordance with the severity of the problem?

There are many reasons that contribute to this: people’s focus on the short term and their seemingly endless desire for consumption; big business, where their business models profit from environmental damage and sometimes contribute to misinformation; divisive politics, where group identities are built around skepticism towards science in general, and climate science more particularly. There is also the blame game. Or putting off the effort until later, like a drug addict who puts off detox until tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. Finally, there is the problem of environmental generational amnesia.

Call for Special Issue Papers: Nature and Health deadline Nov. 19th

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The Special Issue of Ecopsychology is open to submissions on other work in the nature and health field, within the categories below, and also listed here, along with details about the issue.

Deadline for Manuscript Submission: November 19, 2021

Guest Editors: Gregory N. Bratman and Hector Olvera-Alvarez

Our topic on Nature and Health is ambitious insofar as we seek to bring together cohorts within the field of ecopsychology in a traditional sense (such as Deep Ecology), with cohorts from many health-related fields and other scientific disciplines. Some of the articles for this special issue will emerge from those attending the conference. But many other articles will include authors unable to attend. If needed, the Ecopsychology journal will devote two issues to this topic, to promote the burgeoning work across disciplines. Here are examples of some of the areas and approaches:

Interaction with animals, plants, and/or landscapes for health
Social determinants of the nature-health relationship
Wilderness experiences and health
Ecotherapy
Forest bathing
Indigenous ways of knowing
Psychological pathways
Causal mechanisms
Diversity and equity
Agency, power, self-determination, and sovereignty
Social vulnerability
Epidemiology
Neuroscience
Implementation science—studies of what works
Relationship with nature (beyond STEM)
Reciprocal healing of humans and nature
Individual differences
Traditional ecological knowledge
Measuring nature contact
Racism and discrimination in nature
Positive psychological well-being
Biodiversity
Attitudes towards being in nature
Nature/built environment interactions
Multilevel studies
Novel review papers and personal narratives are welcomed, as are investigations that use qualitative methods.

Your contribution should be no longer than 5,500 words (excluding references) and submitted no later than November 19, 2021. Early submissions are welcomed. Please submit using the journal’s online submission portal. http://www.liebertpub.com/forauthors/ecopsychology/300/.

For questions, please contact Editor-in-Chief of the Ecopsychology journal, Peter Kahn at pkahn@uw.edu, or guest editors, Gregory N. Bratman at bratman@uw.edu, or Hector Olvera-Alvarez at olveraal@ohsu.edu.

Generational Amnesia: The Memory Loss That Harms the Planet

Written by

Richard Fisher · BBC · June 24, 2021

Featuring Peter Kahn, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member

According to Kahn and Weiss, we all experience this environmental form of generational amnesia. It is not so much that individuals fail to recall the past they themselves have lived, it’s more that humanity collectively “forgets” the natural world as it once was, as the generations pass. “The problem is one of the most pressing psychological problems of our lifetime,” they write. “It is hard enough to solve problems, like deforestation, ocean acidification, and climate change; but at least most people recognise them as problems.”

Even the most familiar examples of nature, close to home, can be forgotten. Zoologist Lizzie Jones of Royal Holloway, London and colleagues recently interviewed people living in the UK about their perceptions and memories of 10 species of garden bird, both at the time of the survey and their recollection of when they were 18 years old. They found that younger people, who were closer to the age of 18, were less able to describe the true long-term ecological change that had happened among British bird populations. As Jones and colleagues pointed out, murmurations of starlings were once a common sight in the UK but their numbers in England alone declined by 87% between 1967 and 2015. Another example might be the “windscreen phenomenon”, which describes the observation by all but the youngest generations that fewer insects are splattered on their cars nowadays.

Is there any way to avoid such environmental generational amnesia? It might seem that it’s simply a matter of educating each new generation, but Kahn and Weiss propose that doesn’t necessarily mean the traditional teaching of the classroom. Instead, they call on older generations to foster what they call “interaction patterns”, a more experiential approach where children and young people are encouraged to meet nature wherever they can find it.

‘Forgetting Nature’: Peter Kahn Offers Warning in Short Documentary Film

Written by

Peter Kelley · UW News · March 17, 2021

Featuring Peter Kahn, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member

The documentary film is brief but its message is powerful: We humans are losing our connection to the natural world, at our great peril.

“In some sense, we think we are the most advanced culture — we take such pride in technology and advancement,” says Peter Kahn, University of Washington professor in the Department of Psychology and the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.

“But in some other ways, we are more distant from the natural world than any culture has been. Potentially also more distant from the human spirit.”

Kahn’s words are featured in “Forgetting Nature,” a new short documentary by British-based filmmaker Ross Harrison that will begin streaming for free on March 17.

The film, production notes say, is “an urgent call to examine the effects of technology on our experiences, and the way wild nature is being squeezed out of our lives.”

Special Issue of Ecopsychology

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Nature and Health’s Steering Committee Members Peter Kahn and Usha Varanasi recently contributed to the new issue of Ecopsychology! Peter Kahn was Editor-in-Chief for the special issue Reciprocal Healing: Nature, Health, and Wild Vitality and Usha Varanasi was published in Focusing Attention on Reciprocity Between Nature and Humans Can Be the Key to Reinvigorating Planetary Health.

All articles in this issue are free for one month. After that, access to these articles are limited to subscribers, libraries, etc.

Turning to Technology for Nature Could Help Us Feel More Connected, Experts Say

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Sarah Grothjan · REI · April 29, 2020

Featuring Peter Kahn, member of the Center’s Research Collaborative and Steering Committee

Digital nature could also help with feelings of loneliness. A 2018 University of Washington (UW) study showed that university professors who worked in an office with a 50-inch plasma TV that depicted restorative nature scenes—serving, essentially, as a digital window—reported feeling connected to the outdoors and to the wider social community. They also felt less isolated in their offices. When nature is scarce, technological nature, such as a digital window, can benefit people mentally, the study found.

But these findings come with a caveat: Subsequent studies at UW showed that streaming nature on your computer or television can’t replace real outdoor time. That’s partly because there’s no fitness component of watching a livestream on your computer, so you’re not reaping the physical and mental rewards of moving your body, said Peter Kahn, a professor in the UW’s Department of Psychology and School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. The other reason: It’s difficult to replicate the full sensory experience of time outside, where you can hear, smell and see the nature around you.

“I think part of what’s troubling with the tech versions of nature … is so much of the sensory input is diminished, and it’s not real. It’s not life. It’s technology,” Kahn said, adding that he also worries about prescribing people screen time.

But now that people can’t easily get outside, Kahn said there’s an argument for using technological nature.

“I’ve … always said there are contexts of use when [technological nature] is beneficial when people cannot access nature,” he said. “Now COVID-19 comes, and we have a context of use where it’s clearly beneficial.”

Humans Need the Wilderness to be Happy

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Elizabeth Fernandez · Forbes · March 4, 2020

Featuring Peter Kahn, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member

As we embed ourselves more and more in urban environments, it’s important to remember our need for a connection to nature. The results can also help city planners when designing parks.

“Everywhere, development is chipping away at wild areas,” says senior author Peter Kahn. “Humanity has caused so much destruction and there’s no stopping it — unless we stop. We’re trying to show that if you’re going to develop an area, you at least need to understand the human costs.”

Wildness in Urban Parks Important for Human Well-Being

Written by

Michelle Ma · UW News · February 26, 2020

Featuring Peter Kahn, Nature and Health researcher and Steering Committee member

A stretch of beachfront along Puget Sound in Discovery Park, Seattle, Washington. Credit: Elizabeth Lev/University of Washington

As metropolises balloon with growth and sprawl widens the footprint of cities around the world, access to nature for people living in urban areas is becoming harder to find.

If you’re lucky, a pocket park might be installed next to a new condominium complex on your block, or perhaps a green roof tops the building where you work downtown. But it’s unusual to find places in a city that are relatively wild — even though our evolutionary history suggests we need interactions with wild nature to thrive.

A new study led by the University of Washington has found that not all forms of nature are created equal when considering benefits to people’s well-being. Experiencing wildness, specifically, is particularly important for physical and mental health, according to the study published Jan. 29 in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.