Dom Higgins, is head of Health and Education for the Wildlife Trusts. We speak about Nature connectedness, biodiversity, purpose, people, place, Cone Snails and the new Natural History GCSE… among other things.

We talk about how we need active environments, and how it goes back to when we were hunter-gatherers. If you remove people inside and then we remain stationary, then we stress. We should be outside, away from artificial lights and all the accoutrements of the modern-day office (unless it has biophilic design woven into its very fabric). Take anyone away from connecting with nature and we get chronic stress. The disconnection detrimentally affects us physically and mentally.

We discuss this nature-connectedness, that feeling of understanding what is going on in the world, that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We need that daily thought, that sense of knowing that everything has a place, and is connected back to everything else. This is our life-support system essentially. If we don’t design with that sense at our core, then our planet and our health are doomed. If you don’t have that feeling, that sense of connectedness with nature innate within you, then the decisions being made around the world are skewed, everything from creating fair and sustainable employment to the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. It has consequences. And not good ones.

Nature is our key to solving the climate crisis, if we reconnect people with nature, bring nature and natural elements closer to people then everything is more joined up. Better decisions will be made. We need to give nature a chance, we might be too late to prevent climate change, but we can mitigate against the challenges such as cooling cities, carbon sinks, cleaning our air, and ecosystems that can mitigate the issues. We need people to take action, so we need to hear it on the Stock Exchange, Factories, taxis, it should be the business of everybody.

Dom tells us about the 3 strategic goals of The Wildlife Trusts, the first one is the aim to see 30% recovery in land and sea by 2030, second is to see 1 in 4 people taking action in nature or climate change “we can’t do it alone, we need partnerships, new communities and voices” and finally demonstrating the societal value that nature has, for instance, nature-based solutions to the healthcare social care challenges, and we could add Biophilic Design falls into that last goal.

Change has to be mandatory, we need legislation, there is always a cheaper way of doing something, we need to “weave in nature to design resilience to climate change. Nature is there for you.”

To find out more about Dom and The Wildlife Trusts

Get involved: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/get-involved

Find a Wildlife Trust near you: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-trusts

Follow Dom: https://twitter.com/DomCHiggins

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