For my Climate Lab column, I made a map of how much nature is in every neighborhood in America. Spending time in nature is positively correlated with living longer & healthier. 🌳 Search the map and look up your neighborhood here: www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi... 1/6
Spending time in nature is linked to a longer, healthier life. But nature is not distributed fairly across the country.
I spend more time in "nature" now, living in a high rise in Alexandria, than I did living in a house in Fairfax. If the health benefits of nature are the point, than walkability and bikeability are as important as say tree cover.
Hi Harry, this is a great idea and I appreciate the time and effort you put into it. Question though -- the maps don't seem to account for "nature" introductions that aren't parks or open land -- is it just that NatureQuant did not do that or was it an active choice from you and WaPo?
In California you can go one better with the CA Protected Areas Database (www.calands.org). Not just “nature” as abstractly guessed from a satellite sensor, but real land legally accessible to the public as parks or preserves.
Now show the per capita CO2 emissions of each neighborhood
Where and how you live shapes your household’s contribution to climate change. Explore differences across the nation.
Excellent work!
Why should the core of a major metro city be considered "deficient" when it comes to nature access?
I got these data from NatureQuant. Using satellite imagery and data on dozens of factors, they've distilled the elements of health-supporting nature into a single variable called NatureScore. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi... 2/6
Spending time in nature is linked to a longer, healthier life. But nature is not distributed fairly across the country.