Page 184 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

good for us nor for our planet, and the subsequent realization that
a sense of personal fulfilment and satisfaction need not be reliant

on relentless consumption – perhaps quite the opposite.

3.3.4. Nature and well-being

The pandemic has proven to be a real-time exercise in how to
manage our anxiety and fears during a period of extraordinary

confusion and uncertainty. One clear message has emerged from
this: nature is a formidable antidote to many of today’s ills. Recent
and abundant research explains incontrovertibly why it is so.
Neuroscientists, psychologists, medical doctors, biologists and

microbiologists, specialists of physical performance, economists,
social scientists: all in their respective fields can now explain why
nature makes us feel good, how it eases physical and
psychological pain and why it is associated with so many benefits

in terms of physical and mental well-being. Conversely, they can
also show why being separated from nature in all its richness and
variety – wildlife, trees, animals and plants – negatively affects our

minds, our bodies, our emotional lives and our mental health. [162]

COVID-19 and the health authorities’ constant reminders to
walk or exercise every day to keep in shape place these
considerations front and centre. So did the myriads of individual
testimonies during the lockdowns, showing how much people in

cities were longing for greenery: a forest, a park, a garden or just
a tree. Even in the countries with the strictest lockdown regimes
like France, health authorities insisted on the need to spend some
time outside every day. In the post-pandemic era, far fewer people

will ignore the centrality and the essential role of nature in their
lives. The pandemic made this awareness possible at scale (since
now almost everybody in the world knows about this). This will
create more profound and personal connections at an individual

level with the macro points we made earlier about the
preservation of our ecosystems and the need to produce and
consume in ways that are respectful of the environment. We now
know that without access to nature and all it has to offer in terms

of biodiversity, our potential for physical and mental well-being is
gravely impaired.

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