We all know that civilization is moving to the cities. In many ways, this is a really positive trend. Having a greater percentage of people living in dense urban areas will be good for resource efficiency.
But this is also going to present some new challenges. Humans, after all, evolved over eons to live on the Sereghetti. Our bodies and minds are designed for an environment very different from Tokyo or Manhattan. How exactly this affects civilization in the future is unclear, but it's worth thinking about. A new study by researchers at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam looked at how close people lived to green areas and how that affected their physical and mental health.Their results confimed that being in contact with the natural world was good for physical conditions including diabetes, coronary heart disease, and various repiratory issues. But they also found that mental health was greatly affected. From the BBC: