How Smells Reconnect Us To Nature: Breathing Well In Urban Spaces

How Smells Reconnect Us To Nature: Breathing Well In Urban Spaces

We live in a society focused on vision. The technology, the media, the article you are reading, all of these things are mostly perceived and analyzed through our eyes. But it is to our five senses that we owe most of our daily experiences, without always always being aware of it ...

The experience of nature is a perfect example. Our relationship with the natural environment indeed responds to a complex process involving our organs from head to toe: we enjoy a forest walk on a spring morning for the bright colors and the harsh light that runs through the foliage; for the songs of birds, for the cool wind that caresses our skin.

If this moment gives us well-being, it is the fact of multiple sensory stimuli which, by mingling, define together the same experience. Thus the experience of nature is in essence a multisensory experience. But if we enjoy a walk in the forest on a spring morning, it is also for the smells that it exhales  : here the resinous perfume of a pine, there that of the humus or the hyacinths of the woods.

US Ranks Poor 16th In 2015 Social Progress Index

US Ranks Poor 16th In 2015 Social Progress Index

Writing for the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof cites key measures that matter to AOC readers.

The index ranks the United States 30th in life expectancy, 38th in saving children’s lives, and a humiliating 55th in women surviving childbirth. O.K., we know that we have a high homicide rate, but we’re at risk in other ways as well. We have higher traffic fatality rates than 37 other countries, and higher suicide rates than 80.

We also rank 32nd in preventing early marriage, 38th in the equality of our education system, 49th in high school enrollment rates and 87th in cellphone use.

Amsterdam & Netherlands Score High On Global Business & Happiness Indexes

Amsterdam & Netherlands Score High On Global Business & Happiness Indexes

Website Ignant takes us on a stroll through Amsterdam on a rainy day. With a strong warning to first-time visitors to Amsterdam not to become enchanted with the hoards of bikes parked in lots, instructions are to check both directions before crossing the street. Many cyclists in Amsterdam ride their two-wheelers like rockets.

The reasons to love Amsterdam and The Netherlands are countless. Here are a few recent ones:

Amsterdam awarded prize for sustainability fund Dutch Daily News Sept 2014

At a ceremony in New York during September’s UN returns week, the City of Amsterdam was awarded a prize for its sustainability fund (the Amsterdam Investment Fund). The jury recognised the fund as “an excellent example of innovation which will significantly improve the city’s sustainability efforts”.