Manifesto for the Green Mind
Jules Pretty sets out a plan to engage people with Nature and create more sustainable and enjoyable living for everyone.
Pretty, Jules
http://www.theecologist.org/magazine/features/2988715/manifesto_for_the_green_mind.html
Date Written: 2017-03-03
Publisher: The Ecologist
Year Published: 2017
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX20559
Jules Pretty sets out a plan to engage people with Nature and create more sustainable and enjoyable living for everyone. The first call to action is: "Every child outdoors every day".
Abstract:
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Excerpt:
Our story centres on green minds, and offers explanation and a manifesto for action. It surely is not too much to demand a sustainable planet and contented people. We have now developed a green mind theory to link the human mind with our brains and bodies, and connect bodies through behaviours into natural and social environments.
We know this: environments shape bodies, brains and minds; minds in turn drive body behaviours that shape the external environment. Recent discoveries come from neuroscience and hormones, from loneliness to longevity research, from nudge behaviours to choice architecture, and from many spiritual and wisdom traditions.
The green mind theory centres on a simple idea that the brain comprises two parts: one red, one blue. The red brain is ancient, and centres on the bottom brainstem: it is fast-acting, involuntary, and driver of fight-and-flight behaviours. The blue brain is more recent: it is slower, voluntary, the centre for learning, and driver of rest-and-digest. The bottom brain reacts before you think and directs the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). The top brain is calming, directing the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). A mix of blue and red is best for health and happiness.
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