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Why Donald Trump should play even more golf
There’s a furore over how much he’s played in his first few weeks as president. But evidence shows that being outdoors could be the best way for him to stay calm and sane
Donald Trump playing golf on his Scottish course
Rough guy: Donald Trump gets his outdoor fix. Photograph: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
Scrolling through Twitter last night, I wondered why I felt so well. Not smug, just mystified by a mental and physical glow that made me strangely impervious to the toxic aspects of social media.
Warning: living in a city could seriously damage your health
Florence Williams
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It had been an unmemorable weekend. I’d had a distressing argument with one daughter over her disinclination to go swimming; visited a garden centre without buying anything; spotted a marsh harrier; and played “the wheelbarrow game” in the garden, which involves carting one child in a wheelbarrow in pursuit of the others.
Then I read an interview with Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix, who mentioned that we spend on average 5% of our day outdoors. I totted up my 15-hour Sunday: I’d spent exactly half outside.
We’re oblivious to one of our most obvious requirements. Homo sapiens is supremely adaptable, but westerners have lived predominantly inside for 10 generations at most. We need air, sky and some kind of engagement with the earth – but we’re bouncing off mental and physical walls.
There’s no intrinsic moral blessing to it. We may be shooting grouse, paintballing, cycling, gardening or climbing rocks, but a big portion of the pleasure is simply being outdoors.
There’s a furore about Donald Trump playing golf so often in the first weeks of his presidency. This might just be keeping him calm and sane. Play on, Mr President.
The west does not need the grinding physical labour that sent farm labourers to an early grave, but we must reimagine work and schooling to permit more time outdoors. We’d be wise to protect green space in cities and allow more of the solar-powered, pollution-fighting machines otherwise known as trees, which enhance our wellbeing more than we realise.
These are not new arguments. Octavia Hill, a co-founder of the National Trust, was banging on about “open-air sitting rooms” for the urban poor in the 1870s. But we now have neuroscience to prove what we overlook: we need nature far more than it needs us.
The nitrogen nightmare
stinging nettles
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‘Thuggish’ species such as nettles thrive on excessive nitrogen and ammonia, smothering rarer wildflowers Photograph: Alamy
Detoxifying the air is our most immediately pressing environmental challenge – for obvious, self-interested reasons. Less obvious is the impact of air pollution on plants. Nitrogen and ammonia unleashed by burning fossil fuels, traffic and farm fertilisers are having a devastating impact on plants, according to the charity Plantlife. A staggering 90% of nature-rich habitats in England and Wales are suffering from excess nitrogen. In such conditions, a few “thuggish” species such as nettles thrive, smothering rarer wildflowers, fungi, lichen and the invertebrates that depend on them.
We need to talk about nitrogen, says Plantlife. We do. And somewhere in a parallel, enlightened world, politicians sport baseball caps embossed with the vote-winning slogan: Reduce nitrogen Deposition Now.
Notes on a very small island
The British Isles is an archipelago of about 6,000 islands but we lost a big one, Doggerland, 8,000 years ago. Our neolithic forebears would have been delighted by plans to rebuild a 2.5 sq mile island on Dogger Bank, in the North Sea. The old Doggerland was swamped by rising seas; Doggerland 2.0 will be devoted to renewable energy, helping to lessen the sea-level rise caused by global warming.
Sadly for romantics, this idealistic island is called the North Sea Wind Power Hub, and will be built by energy companies from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. This is our ancestral home. We must participate, if only to preserve the Doggerland brand. But I suppose Brexit means we’re a lonely set of small islands these days.
A fishing boat in the North Sea
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A fishing boat in the North Sea, where there are plans to build a 2.5 sq mile island on Dogger Bank. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
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