Keep calm: reasons to head for the park not the beach

My father was always disapproving of people who excused their failure to turn up to his Sunday meeting by saying they'd been "worshipping God in the great outdoors". But the older I get, and the more I read, the more I think it's not such a bad idea.

Illustration: Andrew Dyson.

I'm much attracted by the American biologist Edward O. Wilson's hypothesis of biophilia, that humans have an innate tendency to seek connection to nature, for its calming effects.

Read the piece by Ross Gittins in today’s Melbourne Age - “Keep calm: reasons to head for the park not the beach.”

Our tenure on Earth depends on the health of our insects

E

dward Osborne Wilson, or “E.O. Wilson” as he is better known said:

“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”

E.O. Wilson - our tenure on earth
hinges on the health of our insects.

The American biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist and conservationist, is known to many for his remarkable books.

His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he is considered to be the world's leading expert.

The life of the ant and its impact of wellbeing on the world finds its way into his many of his wonderful books.

Wilson is known for his scientific career, his role as "the father of socio-biology" and "the father of biodiversity", his environmental advocacy, and his secular-humanist and deist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters.