Exposure to nature is healthy - it can improve mental health and people's moods

Contact with nature can improve mental health and people’s moods, studies are finding. 

With the holiday season well underway, some people are enjoying outdoor life, especially walking and cycling.

Current thinking is that creating links with the environment benefits children in several ways, as well as sowing the seeds of life-long appreciation of the natural world around them. I know a one-year-old who gets excited at the sight of birds flitting from tree to tree and who tries to reach out to them whenever he sees them. Researchers from the UCD School of Geography, who mapped trees across Dublin City, found huge disparities in tree cover. For instance, Ballsbridge, in leafy Dublin 4, is 20 times more likely to have a tree on the street than the north inner city.