Im a research bio-psychologist with a PhD, so Ive done lots of school.

Im a pretty good
problem-solver, in my work and in the rest of my life, but that has little to do with the schooling
Ive had. I studied algebra, trig, calculus and various other maths in school, but I cant recall ever
facing a problem even in my scientific research that required those skills. What maths Ive used
was highly specialised and, as with most scientists, I learnt it on the job.
The real problems Ive faced in life include physical ones (such as how to operate a newfangled
machine at work or unblock the toilet at home), social ones (how to get that perfect woman to be
interested in me), moral ones (whether to give a passing grade to a student, for effort, though he
failed all the tests), and emotional ones (coping with grief when my first wife died or keeping my
head when I fell through the ice while pond skating). Most problems in life cannot be solved with
formulae or memorised answers of the type learnt in school. They require the judgement, wisdom
and creative ability that come from life experiences. For children, those experiences are embedded
in play.
Im lucky. I grew up in the United States in the 1950s, at the tail end of what the historian Howard
Chudacoff refers to as the golden age of childrens free play. The need for child labour had
declined greatly, decades earlier, and adults had not yet begun to take away the freedom that
children had gained. We went to school, but it wasnt the big deal it is today. School days were six
hours long, but (in primary school) we had half-hour recesses in the morning and afternoon, and an
hour at lunch. Teachers may or may not have watched us, from a distance, but if they did, they
rarely intervened. We wrestled on the school grounds, climbed trees in the adjacent woods, played
with knives and had snowball wars in winter none of which would be allowed today at any staterun school I know of. Out of school, we had some chores and some of us had part-time jobs such
as paper rounds (which gave us a sense of maturity and money of our own); but, for the most part,
we were free free to play for hours each day after school, all day on weekends, and all summer
long. Homework was non-existent in primary school and minimal in secondary school. There
seemed to be an implicit understanding, then, that children need lots of time and freedom to play.
Im writing, here, in response to the news that the independent School Teachers Review Body is
due to report back this week to Michael Gove on his plan to make school days longer and holidays
shorter. The Education Secretarys hope is that more hours in school will raise test scores in the UK
to the level of those in China, Singapore and other East Asian nations. Paradoxically, Goves
proposal has appeared just a few months after the Chinese ministry of education issued a report
entitled Ten Regulations to Lessen Academic Burden for Primary School Students calling for less
time in school, less homework and less reliance on test scores as a means of evaluating schools.
Educators in East Asian nations have increasingly been acknowledging the massive failure of their
educational systems. According to the scholar and author Yong Zhao, who is an expert on schools
in China, a common Chinese term used to refer to the products of their schools is gaofen dineng,
which essentially means good at tests but bad at everything else. Because students spend nearly all
of their time studying, they have little opportunity to be creative, discover or pursue their own
passions, or develop physical and social skills. Moreover, as revealed by a recent large-scale
survey conducted by British and Chinese researchers, Chinese schoolchildren suffer from

extraordinarily high levels of anxiety, depression and psychosomatic stress disorders, which appear
to be linked to academic pressures and lack of play.
The main focus of my own recent research is on the value of play for childrens development. All
mammals play when they are young and those that have the most to learn play the most.
Carnivores play more than herbivores, because hunting is harder to learn than grazing. Primates
play more than other mammals, because their way of life depends more on learning and less on
fixed instincts than does that of other mammals. Human children, who have the most to learn, play
far more than any other primates when they are allowed to do so. Play is the natural means by
which children and other young mammals educate themselves. In hunter-gatherer bands, children
are allowed to play and explore in their own chosen ways all day long, every day, because the
adults understand that this is how they practise the skills that they must acquire to become effective
adults.
The most important skills that children everywhere must learn in order to live happy, productive,
moral lives are skills that cannot be taught in school. Such skills cannot be taught at all. They are
learned and practised by children in play. These include the abilities to think creatively, to get
along with other people and cooperate effectively, and to control their own impulses and emotions.
My bet is that Gove would agree that now, even more than in the past, creativity is a key to
economic success. We no longer need people to follow directions in robot-like ways (we have
robots for that), or to perform routine calculations (we have computers for that), or to answer
already-answered questions (we have search engines for that). But we do need people who can ask
and seek answers to new questions, solve new problems and anticipate obstacles before they arise.

These all require the ability to think creatively. The creative mind is a playful
mind.
All young children are creative. In their play and self-directed exploration they
create their own mental models of the world around them and also models of
imaginary worlds. Adults whom we call geniuses are those who somehow retain
and build upon that childlike capacity throughout their lives. Albert Einstein said
his schooling almost destroyed his interest in mathematics and physics, but he
recovered it when he left school. He referred to his innovative work as
combinatorial play. He claimed that he developed his concept of relativity by
imagining himself chasing a sunbeam and catching up with it, and then thinking
about the consequences. We cant teach creativity, but we can drive it out of
people through schooling that centres not on childrens own questions but on
questions dictated by an imposed curriculum that operates as if all questions

have one right answer and everyone must learn the same things.

Even more important than creativity is the capacity to get along with other
people, to care about them and to co-operate effectively with them. Children
everywhere are born with a strong drive to play with other children and such play
is the means by which they acquire social skills and practise fairness and
morality. Play, by definition, is voluntary, which means that players are always
free to quit. If you cant quit, its not play. All players know that, and so they know
that to keep the game going, they must keep the other players happy. The power
to quit is what makes play the most democratic of all activities. When players
disagree about how to play, they must negotiate their differences and arrive at
compromises. Each player must recognise the capacities and desires of the
others, so as not to hurt or offend them in ways that will lead them to quit.
Failure to do so would end the game and leave the offender alone, which is
powerful punishment for not attending to the others wishes and needs. The most
fundamental social skill is the ability to get into other peoples minds, to see the
world from their point of view. Without that, you cant have a happy marriage, or
good friends, or co-operative work partners. Children practise that skill
continuously in their social play.
In play, children also learn how to control their impulses and follow rules. All
play even the wildest-looking varieties has rules. A play-fight, for example,
differs from a real fight in that the former has rules and the latter doesnt. In the
play-fight you cannot kick, bite, scratch, or really hurt the other person; and if
you are the larger and stronger of the two, you must take special care to protect
the other from harm. While the goal of a real fight is to end it by driving the other

into submission, the goal of a play-fight is to prolong it by keeping the other

happy. In sociodramatic play the kind of imaginary play exemplified by young
childrens games of house or pretending to be superheroes the primary rule is
that you must stay in character. If you are the pet dog, you must bark instead of
talk and you move around on all fours no matter how uncomfortable that might
be. If you are Wonder Woman and you and your playmates believe that Wonder
Woman never cries, you must refrain from crying if you fall and hurt yourself.
The art of being a human being is the art of controlling impulses and behaving in
accordance with social expectations.

Games over: there seemed to be an

implicit understanding in the 1950s, when this photo was taken, that children needed lots of time and
freedom to play

Play is also a means by which children (and other young mammals) learn to
control fear. Young mammals of many species play in ways that look dangerous.
Goat kids romp along the edges of cliffs; young monkeys chase one another from
branch to branch in trees, high enough up that a fall would hurt; and young
chimpanzees play a game of dropping from high up and then catching themselves
on a lower branch just before they hit the ground. Young humans also play in
such ways when free to do so. Why? Apparently, the slight risks involved are
outweighed by gains. They are dosing themselves with the maximum levels of
fear that they can tolerate without panicking, and they are learning to control
their bodies in the face of that fear an ability that may one day save their lives.
Children also play in ways that elicit anger. One youngster may accidentally hurt
another in the rough and tumble, or negotiations about the rules of a game may
fail, or teasing that was at first in fun may go too far. But for the fun to continue,
the anger must be controlled. To keep the game going in such situations, the

players must react assertively, to stop the offending behaviour, without physically
attacking or throwing a tantrum, either of which would bring play to an end. In
this way, children learn to control their anger.
Researchers have raised young monkeys and rats in ways such that they are
allowed other types of social interactions but are deprived of play. When these
animals are tested, in young adulthood, they are emotional cripples. When placed
in a moderately frightening environment, they overreact with fear. They panic
and freeze in a corner and never explore the environment and overcome the fear
as a normal monkey or rat would. When placed with an unfamiliar peer, they may
alternate between panic and inappropriate, ineffective aggression. They are
incapable of making friends.
Some people object, on moral grounds, to experiments in which young animals
are deprived of play. What a cruel thing to do. But consider this: over the past 50
to 60 years, we have been continuously decreasing the opportunities for our own
children to play. School became more onerous, as breaks were reduced,
homework piled up, and pressure for high grades increased. Outside school,
adult-directed sports (which are not truly play) began to replace impromptu
games (which are play). Children began to take classes out of school, rather than
pursue hobbies on their own. Play dates, with adults present, replaced
unsupervised neighbourhood play, and adults began to feel it was their duty to
intervene rather than let children solve their own problems. These changes have
been gradual, imperceptible, but over time they have been enormous. They have
been caused by a constellation of social factors, including the spread of parents
fears, the rise of experts who are continuously warning us about dangers, the
decline of cohesive neighbourhoods and the rise of a school-centric, or
schoolish, take on child development the view that children learn more from
teachers and other adult directors than they do from one another.
This dramatic decline in childrens opportunities to play has been accompanied
by an equally dramatic increase in childhood mental disorders. Its not just that
we are detecting such disorders where we failed to look before; the increase is
real. Clinical assessment questionnaires, which have been administered to
normative groups in unchanged form over the years, show that rates of clinically
significant depression and anxiety in US schoolchildren are now five to eight
times what they were in the 1950s. Other research indicates that empathy has
been declining and narcissism increasing, ever since valid measures of these were
first developed in the late 1970s. There are even well-validated ways of assessing
creative thinking, and research using these tools suggests that such thinking has
been decreasing among schoolchildren at all grade levels over the past 30 years.

All of these deleterious changes, accompanying the decline of play, are exactly
what we would predict from our knowledge of plays purposes.
No, our children dont need more school. They need more play. If we care about
our children and future generations, we must reverse the horrid trend that has
been occurring over the past half century. We must give childhood back to
children. Children must be allowed to follow their inborn drives to play and
explore, so that they can grow into intellectually, socially, emotionally and
physically strong and resilient adults. The Chinese are finally beginning to realise
this, and so should we.

Medical Marijuana Laws Don't

Increase Teen Use
by Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer | June 15, 2015 06:30pm ET

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Teen use of marijuana doesn't seem to change when states pass laws legalizing the drug for
medical purposes, a new study suggests.
Researchers analyzed information from more than 1 million U.S. teens in grades 8, 10 and
12, who were asked whether they'd used marijuana in the past month. The researchers
collected 24 years' worth of survey data, spanning 1991 to 2014.
Overall, teen marijuana use was more common in states that had passed medical marijuana
laws as of 2014 nearly 16 percent of teens in states where medical marijuana is legal said
they had used marijuana in the past month, compared with 13 percent of teens in states
where medical marijuana is not legal.
But when researchers looked at marijuana use over time in the 21 states where medical
marijuana was legal by 2014, they found no change in marijuana use after a medical
marijuana law was passed, compared with before. About 16 percent of teens said they had
used marijuana in the past month before a law was passed, compared with 15 percent who
said the same after a law was passed.
Two earlier studies also found that marijuana use among teens did not increase following
the legalization of medical marijuana, but these studies were smaller, conducted in just four
to five states.
The new findings "provide the strongest evidence to date that marijuana use by teenagers
does not increase after a state legalizes medical marijuana, study co-author Deborah Hasin,
a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center, said in a statement.
"Rather, up to now, in the states that passed medical marijuana laws, adolescent marijuana
use was already higher than in other states," he said. [The Drug Talk: 7 New Tips for Today's
Parents]
Some people have been concerned that legalizing medical marijuana could lead to an
increased use of the drug among adolescents, because teens might view the drug as more
acceptable or less harmful when such laws are passed. But the new study suggests that
these concerns "seem unfounded," the researchers said.
"Our study findings suggest that the debate over the role of medical marijuana laws in
adolescent marijuana use should cease, and that resources should be applied to identifying
the factors that do affect risk," the researchers wrote in the June 16 issue of the journal The
Lancet Psychiatry.
Dr. Seth Ammerman, a clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of
Medicine, who was not involved in the new study, called the findings "reassuring," because

they show "if a state does put in medical marijuana laws, that thats not going to significantly
affect adolescent use."
The fact that states with legalized medical marijuana have higher teen marijuana use in
general both before and after laws were passed could be because people in those
states have a more liberal attitude toward the drug, Ammerman said.
The researchers noted that because the study looked at medical marijuana laws only, the
findings do not address whether laws allowing the recreational use of marijuana would affect
teen marijuana use, the researchers said. In addition, because some states in the study had
only recently passed medical marijuana laws, the analysis should be repeated after more
years of data have been collected, the researchers said.
Other studies suggest that laws that legalize marijuana may increase the risk of marijuana
exposure in very young children, who may accidentally swallow edible forms of marijuana. A
study published earlier this month found that, in states that legalized marijuana between 2000
and 2013, the rate of marijuana exposure among children ages 5 and younger increased
about 16 percent each year.
Earlier this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement opposing use of
marijuana for medical purposes, except for drugs that are approved by the Food and Drug
Administration. The main concern with medical marijuana is that it is not standardized, so the
term really applies to any part of the Cannabis plant, Ammerman said.
Until the compounds in marijuana go through the same approval process that other drugs go
through, where they are required to show risks and benefits, "it's hard to recommend it,"
Ammerman said.

Beijing's mayor declares city to be unlivable due to life-choking smog

(NaturalNews) That toxic, smoggy air can harm physical health is nothing new or surprising. It has repeatedly been linked to
chronic inflammation and an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. New studies, however, suggest that air
pollution negatively impacts not only our physical health but mental well-being as well.
Two new studies published on March 24 in The BMJ (British Medical Journal) shine a new light on how pollution may
negatively affect our health and happiness.
In the first study,(1) Researchers at the University of Edinburgh analyzed 103 observational studies, conducted in 28 different
countries around the globe, looking for a link between air pollution and cardiovascular health.
Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide, killing around 5 million people each year. According to the scientists at
the Edinburgh University, common risk factors of a stroke include obesity, smoking and high blood pressure, but clear
evidence of environmental factors such as air pollution is nonexistent at the moment.
After analyzing the 103 studies in depth, they had to conclude that there was a "clear association" between air pollution and
people's short-term risk of having or dying from a stroke or heart attack.
According to the study, low- to middle-income countries experienced the strongest associations, compared to high-income
countries. They also believe that for vulnerable people, such as elderly or people with pre-existing heart issues, heavy air
pollution may cause chronic inflammation and trigger a stroke or heart attack.
In another study,(2) researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Harvard University tried to
find the answer to the question of whether air pollution may be related to anxiety, which affects around 16% of our population
at some point in their life.
They investigated more than 70,000 women, aged 57 to 85 years, enrolled in the US Nurses' Health Study. The study
concluded that around 15% showed high symptoms of anxiety, which could be linked to exposure to fine
particle pollution coming from cars and industrial sources.
They believe that air pollution may worsen or trigger anxiety attacks through free radical damage and inflammation or
deteriorate an existing health condition which can make people more anxious or depressed.
A press release(3) regarding the two studies released by The BMJ states:
In an accompanying editorial, Michael Brauer from the University of British Columbia, Canada, writes that these studies
"confirm the urgent need to manage air pollution globally as a cause of ill health" and that reducing "air pollution could be a
cost effective way to reduce the large burden of disease from both stroke and poor mental health."

Although the answers found in these studies clearly associates air pollution to stroke and anxiety symptoms, both studies
were observational and don't prove that air pollution is the direct link.
Melinda Power, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, who led the anxiety study, and her team included
many other factors that could contribute to anxiety in their study. But she says that we have to be careful with the conclusion
we draw from this, because there could be tons of other explanations.
"I think some of the most likely alternative explanations would be other forms of pollution," she noted. CBS News reported that
she mentioned chronic noise from traffic as one possibility.
"It's too soon to declare that better air quality could help ease anxiety symptoms," Power stressed, "But it's an interesting
finding," she said. "And studies need to look further into the association between air pollution and mental health."
So while most anxiety symptoms are covered up by mind-damaging psych drugs, the answer may simply be a reduction in air
pollution.

(NaturalNews) What may appear to foreigners as a city swathed in fog on a cold rainy day is really a Chinese city smothered
in smog, a type of air pollution so dangerous that some officials refer to the city as "unliveable," The Guardian reports.
Over recent years, China's air pollution has grown increasingly worse, prompting government officials to call for total reform of
its industrial practices. However, the trek to curb this environmental crisis has been a slow one, with economic growth still
taking precedence over public safety.
Chinese officials blame the country's increased pollution on widely distributed polluting factories, as well as a significant
increase in the amount of motor vehicles on the roadways.
"At the present time, however, Beijing is not a liveable city," said the city's mayor, Wang Anshun.
Much of Hong Kong shrouded in smog most of the year
Fossil emissions in China have increased nine-fold since the 1950s, with approximately 2.1 billion tons of coal produced and
burned there each year. Home to 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, roughly one-third of China's land receives acid
rainfall, merely one side effect of severe environmental pollution.
"Acidification now affects some 30 percent of China's cropland, and the estimated damage to farms, forests, and human
health is US $13 billion," according to the Worldwatch Institute's State of the World 2006 report.
In addition to the environment, this level of pollution poses extreme risks to human health. As noted by the Worldwatch
Institute, a recent study found that nearly half a million premature deaths were caused by diseases linked to air pollution.
Approximately 50,000 newborn babies are killed each year by air pollution, according to China's Ministry of Science and
Technology. The region's deteriorating air quality is contributing to an increase in acute respiratory inflammation, asthma and
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Mayor calls for reform of China's polluting factories just days before research report announces 10 percent decline
in tourism to Beijing
China's pollution problems are no secret. In fact, a recent report by the market research company Euromonitor International
announced its findings on the global tourism market in 2013, reporting a 10 percent decline from the year before in tourism to
Beijing due to pollution and an overall decrease in their economy.
Beijing reportedly ranked number 34 out of 100 on the company's list of the most popular cities for tourism. The city's major,
Wang, called for change when he demanded that Beijing's polluting factories be totally shut down rather than be
"irresponsibly" moved to neighboring areas of Hebei and Tianjin, reports The Guardian.
Last year, the city of Beijing closed nearly 400 pollution-causing factories and removed about half a million cars off the roads,
according to Wang, adding that, despite the region's "choking pollution," population control is their biggest problem.
With the city's population increasing by 350,000 residents per year, Wang says an influx of migrant labor has put an added
strain on Beijing.

A "sweeping anti-pollution plan" was introduced in 2013 by Chinese officials, which prevented the building of new coal-fired
power plants in the country's three most important cities: Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
"This represents the government is strict with science, truth-seeking, responsible for the people and determined to pursue
human-centred administration, improve the environment and safeguard people's health rights," according to the
announcement.
Eighteen short months later and the plan is moving slowly, in part, due to lax enforcement of environmental regulations.
Beijing is still encompassed in a white cloud of smog most days; however, authorities say particulate matter -- pollutants most
dangerous to human health -- have declined by 4 percent, falling slightly short of the government's 5 percent reduction goal.
(NaturalNews) After many days without rain in densely populated places like Los Angeles and New York City, it is sometimes
possible to catch a small glimpse of what is an everyday reality for Beijing, China's 20-some million residents -- thick blankets
of blackish smog that penetrate the air and fill the lungs of those who breathe it.
Beijing is one of the most air-polluted cities on the planet, so much so that researchers from the Shanghai Academy of Social
Sciences declared it to be almost "uninhabitable for human beings" in a recent study. Buildings throughout the city are having
to be outfitted with special air purifiers, and schoolchildren are being forced to play sports indoors, underneath special
protective inflatable domes.
"It's a bit of a change having to go through an airlock on the way to class," stated Travis Washko, director of sports at the
British School of Beijing, to The Guardian about some of the new ways the city's institutions are dealing with the problem. "But
the kids love it, and parents can now rest assured their children are playing in a safe environment."
If it weren't for the dome, students would be forced outdoors into a thick layer of noxious pollution that almost never subsides.
Air pollution has become so dense, in fact, that China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the average
18-year-old Beijing resident will spend about 40 percent of his remaining years in ill health.

Are the people of Beijing being deprived of

vitamin D?
All across the city, buildings are being altered to keep people fully confined in hermetically sealed rooms and spaces, with no
access to the polluted outside air. But in the process, Beijing residents are being deprived of direct exposure to natural
sunlight, which is necessary for the production of vitamin D inside the body.
A study conducted earlier this year on pregnant women in Beijing found that all of them were deficient in vitamin D, the direct
result of avoiding time outdoors. Some of the women reported taking vitamin D supplements to counteract the lack of sunlight
exposure, but the average amounts they took weren't enough to bring them into the optimal range.

Beijing utilizing "chemtrails" to produce artificial

rain in effort to cut pollution
Since government crackdowns on excessive factory pollution and moderate restrictions on fossil fuel production have done
little to address the problem, some scientists and entrepreneurs have proposed more novel mitigatory solutions. One of these
involves installing copper wires underground to magnetically attract air pollution, while a nearby city has suggested digging
giant ditches in mountainsides to capture pockets of pollution.
Already in play are futuristic weather-modification techniques that China at large is already using to address drought
conditions. Recognizing that precipitation tends to capture air pollution and clear it from the skies in a way similar to a vacuum
cleaner, the Chinese government has implemented a network of "chemtrail" machinery, including 50 airplanes, that
intentionally seed the skies with clouds in order to create fake rain.

"[B]ecause of chronic water shortages, China has invested heavily in artificial rain since the late 1950s," explains The
Guardian. "The country now [boasts] a battery of 7,000 cloud-seeding artillery guns, the same number of launchers for
chemical-bearing rockets, and more than 50 planes -- all manned by an army of 50,000 employees, ready to launch full-scale
warfare on the weather."
(NaturalNews) Just two hours on a busy city street is enough to cause damage to your lungs and arteries, according to a
study conducted by researchers from the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom.
The findings came just weeks after the European Court of Justice ruled that air pollution levels in 16 British cities were so high
as to place the British government in violation of EU law.
"This European Court of Justice judgement is a damning indictment of the Tory-led Government's total failure to tackle the
UK's air pollution," said Shadow Environment Secretary Maria Eagle. "Air pollution is a serious public health issue facing our
towns and cities, tens of thousands of lives are lost each year and yet David Cameron's government has done nothing to
solve the problem."

Diesel fumes especially dangerous

The researchers found that just two hours of exposure to traffic fumes caused significant reductions in lung capacity among
people with respiratory conditions such as chronic bronchitis or emphysema. The most dangerous chemicals appeared to be
nitrogen dioxide from diesel engines, which in London includes both buses and taxis.
Diesel fumes also contain microscopic carbon particles that are believed to enter the blood and increase the risk of heart
attack.
The study shows the need to reduce traffic-related pollution, said Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung
Foundation.
The recent findings reinforce prior research, which has shown that air pollution significantly increases the risk of heart and
lung diseases. In fact, a study conducted by researchers from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Great Britain and
published in the journal BMC Public Health in 2007 actually found that living in a major city placed a person at greater risk of
premature death than exposure to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown did.
The researchers found that firefighters who responded to the 1986 disaster and people who continued to live in the exclusion
zone around the radioactive plant were 1 percent more likely to die early than people who had not been exposed to that much
radiation (the equivalent of 12,000 chest X-rays). In contrast, inhabitants of central London were 2.8 percent more likely to die
from heart and lung disease linked to air pollution than inhabitants of Inverness, the least polluted city in Britain.
"Populations still living unofficially in the abandoned lands around Chernobyl may actually have a lower health risk for
radiation than they would have if they were exposed to air pollution in a large city," researcher Jim Smith wrote.

Air pollution from vehicles damages your lungs and cardiovascular

system after just two hours on busy street
The world's most polluted street
In April 2014, a thick smog forced schools across Britain to keep children indoors, and adults to cancel outdoor exercise.
Then, just months later, researchers from King's College London found that Oxford Street in London has the world's highest
recorded concentrations of nitrogen dioxide. They believe that the tall buildings lining both sides of the street box in diesel
fumes.

"Airways obstruction and a stiffening of the arteries occurred in both the healthy volunteers and people with lung disease,
even after limited exposure to diesel pollution," researcher Rudy Sinharay said.

"On the [whole], the major health risk is cumulative over a long period of time. Christmas shoppers shouldn't panic, but it
would be wise for people with chronic lung or heart disease to check the air pollution forecast and limit their exposure on very
polluted days."

It was problems such as these that caused environmental law firm ClientEarth to sue the British government in the European
Court, leading to the recent ruling.

"Thousands of people die because of air pollution every year," ClientEarth lawyer Alan Andrews said. "This ruling will save
lives by forcing the Government to finally take this issue seriously."

Trees save how many lives a year in the United States?

(NaturalNews) Trees are naturally helping to save hundreds of lives per year. In fact, in the first broad-scale approximation of
its kind, researchers have estimated that trees save over 850 lives per year. Not only that, but they also can help reduce and
prevent more than 670,000 cases of severe respiratory symptoms as well.
The study illustrates the importance of trees not only for sequestering carbon but also for helping to remove pollutants from
the air. The research indicated that the benefits of trees are especially important in urban areas due to their close proximity to
humans and because 80% of the United States population lives in urban areas.

The Study
The study, which was published in the journal Environmental Pollution and conducted by scientists from the Davey Institute
and the U.S. Forest Service, calculated how helpful trees were in removing four EPA quality standard indicators. These four
air pollutants were ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter less than 2.5 microns. By removing these
pollutants, the researchers estimated that trees help save $7 billion annually in human health costs that are associated with
air pollution by merely improving air quality by less than 1 percent. That 1 percent saves a hefty cost to humans.
While there was a bigger improvement in air quality in rural areas, the effect that this improvement had on human health was
greater in urban areas. Dave Nowak, who was part of the U.S. Forest Service research team, said, "In terms of impacts on
human health, trees in urban areas are substantially more important than rural trees due to their proximity to people. We
found that in general, the greater the tree cover, the greater the pollution removal, and the greater the removal and population
density, the greater the value of human health benefits."

Trees Improve Our Health

Not only do trees help reduce air pollution and therefore help us breathe easier, but it has also been found that simply
touching a tree or being near one can make you feel healthier and happier. By helping to improve reaction times, depression,
concentration levels, etc., trees and plants can help improve your mental outlook and overall sense of well-being.
Research presented at a 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Chicago indicated that
people who live in areas that have more trees, parks, grass and green areas live longer and had improved mental and
physical health. One study even indicated that your overall health could be predicted by the total amount of green space
within a 1- to 3-mile radius of your home.

Conclusion
While this study was carried out in the United States, these results could be correlated for the rest of the world's trees, parks
and green spaces. Trees can help benefit us in so many ways and, in fact, they are actually saving lives. From improving the
quality of our air to increasing our mental/physical health to saving us billions of dollars in medical bills, they are one of our
biggest natural assets. Maybe we should all plant a tree today!

How to Clean Up Our Water

Ten Simple Ways You Can Help Reduce Pollution and Runoff
Everyday household activities contribute to water pollution. When it rains, fertilizer from lawns, oil from
driveways, paint and solvent residues from walls and decks and even pet waste are all washed into
storm sewers or nearby lakes, rivers and streams -- the same lakes, rivers and streams we rely on
for drinking water supply, boating, swimming and fishing. Also, improper handling of materials around the
house can lead to pollution. Here are some ways you can help reduce your impact on waterways.

In Your Yard

1. Decrease impervious surfaces around your home. Having fewer hard surfaces of concrete and
asphalt will reduce runoff from your property. Landscape with vegetation, gravel or other porous
materials instead of cement; install wood decking instead of concrete, and interlocking bricks and paver
stones for walkways. Redirect rain gutters and downspouts away from buildings and to rain barrels and
gardens, soil, grass or gravel areas. Planting vegetation at lower elevations than nearby hard surfaces
allows runoff to seep into soil.
2. Use native plants and natural fertilizers. Native plants need less water, are more tolerant of drought
conditions, cost less to maintain and provide habitat for birds and butterflies. Apply natural fertilizers and
soil conditioners, such as compost, peat, rotted manure, and bone meal to stimulate plant growth and
retain soil moisture. You can create your own compost; compost bins are widely available for purchase,
or you can make your own. Composting decreases the need for chemical fertilizers, helps soil retain
moisture, and diverts waste from landfills. If you don't know how to compost, visit The Compost
Resource Page or the EPA's composting pages.

3. Don't over-water lawns and gardens. According to the EPA, "nationwide, landscape irrigation is
estimated to account for almost one-third of all residential water use, totaling more than 7 billion gallons
per day." Most obviously, limit irrigation to vegetated areas - prevent overspray onto sidewalks,
driveways, and street curbing. Avoid sprinkler irrigation on steep slopes and narrow strips that cannot be
watered efficiently. Know how much water your lawn is getting by using a rain gauge to track precipitation
and match the amount of water you apply to the actual needs of your variety of turf. For non-turf areas,
use slow-watering techniques, i.e. trickle or "drip" irrigation systems and soaker hoses, which are 20
percent more efficient than sprinklers. Over-watering lawns not only wastes water, but can also increase
the leaching of fertilizers into groundwater. Watering before the sun comes up, or after it sets, will also
decrease the amount of water lost to evaporation.

In Your Home

4. Recycle and dispose of all trash properly.Never flush non-degradable products -- such as
disposable diapers or plastic tampon applicators -- down the toilet. They can damage the sewage
treatment process and end up littering beaches and waters. And make sure to properly dispose of all pet
waste from your property to keep it out of storm drains and water supplies.
5. Correctly dispose of hazardous household products. Keep paints, used oil, cleaning solvents,
polishes, pool chemicals, insecticides, and other hazardous household chemicals out of drains, sinks,
and toilets. Many of these products contain harmful substances -- such as sodium hypochlorite,
petroleum distillates, phenol and cresol, ammonia and formaldehyde -- that can end up in nearby water
bodies. Contact your local sanitation, public works, or environmental health department to find out about
hazardous waste collection days and sites, or check Earth911.com for local recycling options. If a local
program isn't available, request one. Additionally, incorrect disposal of pharmaceuticals andpersonal care
products leads to the presence of pharmaceutical residues in our waterways and, ultimately, our drinking
water. To keep pharmaceuticals and personal care products out of waterways, never flush them down the
toilet. The best way to dispose of these items is through "take-back" programs where drugs are returned
to a facility that can dispose of them properly. Contact your local health officials or household hazardous
waste facility to find out what options exist in your region.
6. Use nontoxic household products whenever possible. Discarding harmful products correctly is
important, but not buying them in the first place is even better. Ask local stores to carry nontoxic products
if they don't already. For examples of safe substitutes for environmentally harmful household products,
check EPA's Greener Products website.

Maintaining Your Car

7. Recycle used motor oil. Dont pour waste oil into gutters or down storm drains, and resist the
temptation to dump wastes onto the ground. A single quart of motor oil that seeps into groundwater can
pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water. If you don't have a place to recycle used motor oil in your
community, ask your local sanitation or public works department to create one. Check Earth911.com for
local recycling options. When you buy motor oil, ask if the store or service station has a program to buy
back waste oil and dispose of it properly. Keep up with car maintenance to reduce leaking of oil, coolant,
antifreeze and other hazardous fluids.
8. Be "green" when washing your car. Skip the home carwash. Take your car to a professional professional carwashes are required to drain their wastewater into sewer systems, where it is treated
before being discharged. This spares your local rivers and bays from the brake fluid, oil and automotive
fluids that could otherwise contaminate your water. Many carwashes also recycle their wastewater, and
use less than half the amount of water of a home carwash. Ask around to find a carwash that practices
wastewater recycling. Alternatively, you can "wash" your car at home using a waterless carwash product.

In Your Community

9. Help identify, report and stop polluters. Join a local clean water or environmental group that
monitors industries and sewage treatment plants that are discharging wastes. Local groups can be
effective working together with state environmental agencies, EPA and national groups like NRDC to
ensure that industries comply with regulations. To find a local clean water organization in your area,
contact the Clean Water Network or Waterkeeper Alliance.
10. Be an activist. Educate yourself about water issues in your community. Find out where and how
decisions are made about investments in projects and programs to protect your water and the rates and
charges you pay for water and wastewater service. Contact your public officials and attend hearings to
encourage them to support laws and programs to protect our water. Ask officials to control polluted
runoff, ensure protection for wetlands and other aquatic ecosystems, reduce the flow of toxics into our
waterways, and strengthen enforcement. Volunteer for a beach or stream clean up, tree planting, water
quality sampling, or stream pollution monitoring project sponsored by a local environmental group or
watershed council. Visit NRDC's Action Center to learn about urgent issues you can get in involved in.

What it Means to You

Plastic pollution affects every waterway, sea and ocean in the world. When we damage our water
systems, we're putting our own well-being at risk. This pollution also has huge costs for taxpayers and
local governments that must clean this trash off of beaches and streets to protect public health, prevent
flooding from trash-blocked storm drains, and avoid lost tourism revenue from filthy beaches. NRDC
analyzed a survey of 95 California communities and found their total reported annual costs for preventing
litter from becoming pollution is $428 million per year. See NRDC's Waste in Our Waterways: Unveiling
the Hidden Costs to Californians of Litter Cleanup.

Solutions
The most effective way to stop plastic pollution in our oceans is to make sure it never reaches the water
in the first place. We all need to do our fair share to stop plastic pollution: individuals need to recycle and

never litter, but producers of single use plastic packaging need to do more too. We need producers to
design packaging so that it is fully recyclable, and so there is less waste. We also need producers to help
cover the costs of keeping their products out of the ocean.
NRDC is working on three key strategies to curb plastic water pollution in the U.S. and beyond:
1. Holding plastic producers accountable. Many states hold producers of materials like paint and
carpet responsible for recovering and recycling their product after it is used. Producers of plastic
packaging should be required to find innovative ways to design better packaging that can be more fully
recovered for recycling or reuse, and they should help cover the costs required to keep plastic out of the
environment.
NRDC is building a growing coalition of waste management, community, environmental, and business
groups support measures that would stop plastic pollution at its source by creating incentives for industry
to use less packaging for their products, make them recyclable, and ensure that recycling actually
happens. Increasing recycling isn't just good for the environment; it's also a green jobs creator. Learn
more in NRDC's report From Waste to Jobs: What Achieving 75 Percent Recycling Means for California.

2. Leading international action. NRDC's oceans and waste experts are working directly with
international leaders and organizations such as the UN Environment Program to help establish
international guidelines for curbing plastic pollution. We're also bringing government agencies and
organizations together at the international level to showcase solutions.
3. Reducing plastic pollution. NRDC helps control the amount of litter in our oceans by pushing for
legislation that will reduce plastic pollution. We offer strategic guidance to partner organizations and
support policies at the state and municipal level in California that help to address pollution from plastic
bags and foam to-go containers.

What You Can Do

Marine plastic pollution shows us that we cannot really throw anything "away." Reducing, reusing, and
recycling is the best way to stem the tide of plastics into our oceans. Here are some specific steps you
can take to cut down on your use and protect our oceans.
1. Cut disposable plastics out of your routine. Simple alternatives include bringing your own bag to
the store, choosing reusable items wherever possible, and purchasing plastic with recycled content.

2. Recycle. When you need to use plastic, be sure that you recycle it after you've reused it. Each piece
of plastic recycled is one less piece of waste that could end up in our oceans.

3. Take Responsibility. Whether you represent yourself, a business, or a government, know how much
you are contributing to the problem of plastic pollution.

Conduct a waste audit and share the information.

Set specific goals to reduce or eliminate your plastic waste generation.

4. Clean up your beach. Many organizations host clean-up days where you can volunteer to pick up
trash at your local beach. A few hours of your time can make a big difference.
5. Support NRDC's work. Because marine debris primarily originates on land, NRDC's ongoing work on
waste prevention and recycling plays a critical role in resolving this issue. With your support, NRDC can
continue urgent work to reduce plastic waste from reaching our oceans. Donate now