Humans need — and deserve — contact with nature.
We depend on green, leafy surroundings for our health and happiness in innumerable, significant ways. As a key pillar of well-being, access to nature should be our right, not a privilege. But, as urban development spreads, gray is becoming the new green. Nature deprivation is a growing threat, harming millions of people worldwide — especially vulnerable and marginalized groups. It is an inequality that widens existing socioeconomic gaps by damaging physical, mental, and emotional health. To combat this, the Nature Is a Human Right campaign, founded in 2020 by Ellen Miles, is working to make access to green space a recognized human right.
This book has taken root from the mission and vision of the campaign, bringing together a collection of engaging, accessible essays, curated by [NIAHR/an authoritative figure in this field], from a selection of its expert ambassadors and supporters (including leading authors, artists, podcasters, journalists, photographers, human rights experts, climate activists and eco-educators). Each contributor shares their personal experiences in nature and explores green spaces through subjects such as mental and physical health, racial equality, intersectional environmentalism, climate change, queer environmentalism, permaculture, rewilding, art and creativity, and environmentally just societies.
This is an informative, enlightening, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes heartbreaking, essential, and inspiring collection of writing that highlights the importance of nature, the threat of nature deprivation, and the work that needs to be done to make our environments happier, healthier, more equal spaces. Ellen Miles founded the Nature Is a Human Right campaign in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic — an event that highlighted many social and environmental inequalities including nature deprivation. Taking on the sentiment flooding our news channels, social media, and advertisements that we must find a "new normal," the NIAHR campaign and its supporters (from authors, naturalists, and eco-educators to climate activists and sustainable fashion bloggers) are transforming this platitude into a catalyst for change and action. Their goal is to make access to nature a human right recognized by the United Nations (UN), and to achieve a healthy, happier, greener, more equal world.
