ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
A Deep Connection: Urban Trees and Health Human Health in Cities
Contributions to A Deep Connection from: Sibylle Ermler (Brunel University), Enrique Castro-Sánchez (Imperial College), Ian Willey (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew), Claire Robertson (Westminster University), Lucy Brown (London Institute of Medical Sciences), Roween Rowat (London Institute of Medical Sciences), Solange Alves (Imperial College), Catherine Herbert (Central Saint Martins), Charlie Roscoe and Nidhee Jadeja (Imperial College).
A Picture of Health depends on human beings living in harmony with the life support systems sustaining us - the air we breath, the water we drink, the food we eat, the weather we experience as well as the economics that support us, the culture that nourishes us, the medicine that treats us and the rights that we enjoy. Individuals are an integral part of complex systems - and so are the trees.
A Deep Connection was made in creative dialogue with scientists working on Diet and Lifestyle, the Health of Trees and Environmental Impacts & Ageing and Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection.
Initially supplying medical and environmental research papers Phil Barton then held two creative workshops to consider the scientific similarities and differences of a picture of health for people and urban trees. Together they brainstormed, wrote poetry, drew and deliberated. Many elements of the finished artwork reflect these interactions.
BEHIND THE MAKING
There are some deep connections between the health of human individuals and individual trees in cities. The scientific evidence is developing and incomplete, but here are some significant connections:
Individuals, whether trees or humans, are embedded in complex systems of which they are a part. These include the economic, political, employment, cultural, environmental, agricultural, industrial production, transport, health and education systems. Nidhee Jadija provided the artist with helpful early information on systems thinking, theory and operation.
Both trees and individuals of lower socioeconomic status are unable to move and are therefore stuck with the location in which they are situated. This is self-evident for trees. People of lower socioeconomic status, however, are frequently confined to a particular area and accommodation as a result of their own lack of agency. The systems bearing on them are many and various, but include low incomes, cultural clustering of faith, cultural or language communities, the housing and jobs markets, policies and behaviours of the central and local state, transport costs, for immigrants and refugees a ‘hostile environment’ which may combine to restrict their movement.
There is mass of evidence of this phenomenon, but for this project the artist reviewed some of the Local Area Statistics provided by Office of National Statistics.
One major connection is the fact that environmental quality in urban areas is generally poorer in urban than rural areas and poorer still in in the most socioeconomically deprived neighbourhoods. This can be clearly seen by looking at some key area health statistics for west London and comparing them with some key environmental quality statistics obtained from the Environment and Health Atlas for England and Wales compiled by the Small Area Statistics Unit at Imperial College London. Both of these sources were provided to the artist by Dr Claire Robinson of University of Westminster.
Charlie Roscoe from Imperial College London provided a range of research papers demonstrating the extent of this environmental injustice and its consequent adverse impacts on people’s health and wellbeing both in the UK and in cities worldwide. Alongside this, however, she also offered papers on the adverse effects on the health of trees in the same neighbourhoods as those that research shows suffer from Environmental Injustice.
Alongside this Ian Willey of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew offered a recent study on the health of the oak population in the UK summarised in a 2019 report. The report identified key issues for the health of the population including environmental factors, pests and diseases, genetics, engagement and the association with the eco-systems of which they are part. Discussion with the MRC scientists confirmed that many of these factors have a bearing on human health.
One starting point for the project was the work of Dr Sibylle Ermler of Brunel University’s Institute of Environment, Health and Societies studying the effect of widespread hormone disrupters in the environment on humans. These are widespread and the full effects on human health not fully understood. With her help, the artist established that trees too have hormones which current research suggests have a sophisticated role to play in their life and health going much deeper than previously suspected. It seems likely, if unproven, that environmental hormone disrupters interfere with trees’ chemistry just as they do for humans
In terms of this project, there is a growing body of evidence of the health benefits of humans deriving from exposure to nature in general and green spaces in particular. Equally strong is the evidence of the positive impact of this on older people, on health recovery in hospital, the encouragement of exercise (GPs are now proscribing ‘green gyms’ in many cities), the reduction of low level depression and, conversely, the triggering of positive thoughts and wellbeing (the current publicity for ‘tree bathing’ being a case in point). This evidence derives both from papers provided by Charlotte Roscoe, but also the artists previous research experience when working for the North West Development Agency and Keep Britain Tidy.