Our Green Health - Page 2 of 23 - be happy, healthy and fit

How Air Pollution Affects our Health and Destroys Flora and Fauna

04/02/2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

Air pollution affects our health in a very direct way. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that air pollution kills “an estimated seven million people worldwide every year”.

The toxic agents causing this disaster are particulate matter, carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. These toxic agents are released by household combustion devices, motor vehicles, industrial facilities, and forest fires.

At this very moment, we all breathe air that exceeds the guidelines of the WHO. Low and middle-income countries suffer the most.

Why we Desperately Need Sustainable Citizens’ Initiatives

28/01/2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

We desperately need more sustainable citizens’ initiatives, because we cannot trust politicians to take the effort. I explain my lack of trust in politicians by expressing my amazement about some peculiar political beliefs.

I do this to introduce a project that tries to change devastating agricultural practices for the better: GO Agrodiverso.

It’s an amazing project because it’s aimed at the conservation of as great a variety of national fruits and vegetables as possible. The participants want more biodiversity in agriculture.

Global Biodiversity Dictates the Quality of Our Life

24/01/2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

Global biodiversity dictates the quality of our life. You might compare it with our personal health. It’s one of our most important assets. The reason of course is that it makes us feel good. Yet, there is more. We perform better when we are healthy. Physically and mentally. We measure our well-being by our health. Our quality of life is measured by our health.

There are a lot of pines where we live. All the neighbours in our street spray poison against the pine processionary caterpillar. This spraying is totally nonsense and goes against every biodiversity logic. All the natural enemies of this caterpillar live here: the praying mantis, dozens of bats, cuckoos, and the great tit. Our neighbours consciously destroy the habitat of these animals and are a threat to the biodiversity in this area.

What’s Wrong with Nuclear Power, and what are Alternative Energy Sources?

21/01/2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

In 2019, nuclear power produced 10% of the global electricity used worldwide. Natural gas provided 24% of the global electricity consumption in 2019. Both are very expensive, non-renewable fossil fuels.

The difference is that nuclear power can only produce electricity, whereas natural gas can also be used to heat buildings, and serve as a combustion to cook, and for cars, ships, and aeroplanes.

There is much concern about nuclear power and natural gas because the European Union plans to accept these as green energy sources to combat climate change. From whatever perspective we judge nuclear power and natural gas, they are all but green.

Why we Have to Allow ourselves to Experience our Emotions

17/01/202217/01/2022 by Hannie Mommers

As a child, adults often tell us not to cry, to not experience our emotions, to ignore our sadness. Culturally speaking, we are taught to avoid all unpleasant emotions. At any cost.

It’s sort of funny how we teach our children not to cry and later in life are surprised we raised unhappy teenagers and adults.

In fact, it’s quite simple: when there is no dark, we have no idea what light is. When there is no black, we haven’t got a clue about white.

What is the Best Way to Beat Depression without Medicines?

14/01/2022 by Hannie Mommers

Depression is a huge problem in society nowadays. Both young and old can suffer an overwhelming sense of helplessness and anxiety.

If you are a cynic you could say people just have too much time to worry. A remark that doesn’t help anybody, nor is it true in my opinion.

This article explains why exercise is a great way to beat depression. Other articles like Why we Have to Allow ourselves to Experience our Emotions and Why Should we be Grateful for Health and Relations? approach the subject from a different angle.

Happiness is More than Thinking Positive Thoughts

07/01/2022 by Hannie Mommers

When someone asks me “What defines your happiness?”, then for me – besides thinking positive thoughts – it’s also studying and learning new things. At times my focus point of study is neuromarketing. Last year it was epigenetics.

Those 2 disciplines both have the primal brain as their object of study. Neuromarketing got my interest from a business point of view, where epigenetics triggers me on a personal level.

Epigenetics is a new discipline that studies the influence of our environment and our behaviour on the activation of genes. It shows that anything we do, eat, drink or think can make us stronger or weaker.