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https://theconversation.com/1-in-4-australians-is-lonely-quality-green-spaces-in-our-cities-offer-a-solution-188007>
"One in four Australian adults feel lonely, and the impacts can be dire.
Loneliness increases our risks of depression, diabetes, dementia, self-harm and
suicide. But likening it to a disease and proposals to treat it with a pill
miss the point: we’ve been building for loneliness over many decades and
decision-makers have been asleep at the wheel.
Having studied the issue, we view loneliness as largely a product of our
environment – what we call a “lonelygenic environment” – not a disease or a
problem with any particular individual. So what is this “lonelygenic
environment”?
Over decades, our cities have become sprawling low-density agglomerations. Many
places are too far to walk from home. Short errands are routinely done by car,
erasing opportunities to stop and chat with locals.
Large-scale felling of street trees has not only obliterated natural shade, but
severed our connection with the “more than human” world. Car traffic dominates
residential roads, which are also clogged with parked cars.
We have lost the people-friendly streets that we once used for regularly
gathering, playing and celebrating with neighbours. No wonder we now know so
few by name.
If the determinants of loneliness are largely environmental, so too must be the
solutions. Yet we hear so little about this."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
