Thomas Astell-Burt is the Professor of Cities and Planetary Health and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in nature-based solutions for loneliness and health. Thomas is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher and is ranked 1st out of 10,000 globally for nature and health research. Thomas’s ARC, NHMRC and MRFF-funded research involves collaborating, co-producing, and communicating studies positioned to create healthier cities for all, and uses ‘social prescribing’ to (re)connect people with things in cities that can enable flourishing, e.g., green spaces.

Title: #MoreGreenTimeLessScreenTime

Presentation Abstract: Trees, forests, and other green spaces, are fundamentally understood by many cultures around the world as important, sentient, members of community. Beyond the shade they endow on our many hot days and the natural umbrellas during the rain, trees link people with the past, present, and future, with potential to outlive almost all of us. Trees provide inspiration for language, music, poetry, painting, culturally significant meeting places, and potent symbols of community. Trees and green spaces sustain basic human needs, from the food you eat, the chairs you’re sitting on, the air you breathe, and shelter from the elements. They do all these things for us, and yet we destroy them systematically, ruthlessly, without care for the communities to which they contribute so much, or for wellbeing of future generations. When we destroy trees we destroy ourselves and our connections not only with nature, but maybe also with each other. In this presentation, I demonstrate the significant health benefits of nearby tree canopy and green spaces for human mental, physical and social health. I present evidence for nature prescription programs and some of the challenges in their effective and equitable implementation. I argue that by conserving and restoring the trees and other green spaces in our cities, we not only protect our more-than-human neighbours, we also protect ourselves.