- Hi everyone, it's Erin.
Today, I'm gonna be doing a little bit of work in a cubicle.
(dramatic music)
We are the first indoor species.
We spend about 95% of our life inside.
If that's surprising to you, you're not alone.
Put another way, we are spending
about 22 hours a day inside.
Even today's kids spend half the time playing outside
compared to their parents.
"Oxford Junior Dictionary" sees this trend.
They've replaced the word beaver with blog, and completely
taken out fern, lobster, sycamore, and dandelion.
Now that's a change.
For the first time ever, more than half
the world's population lives in cities.
Cities are designed to get us from building to building,
but what about nature?
What about the outdoors and the wild?
What if we're all living in cities,
and we don't really get outside anymore?
(gentle music)
Hey, I'm Erin and I'm a travel photographer and writer
and I wanna know what the future of the outdoors looks like.
(upbeat music)
Hey everyone, so I just landed in Chicago.
I've never been here before and I'm excited
to be experiencing a new city.
It is beautiful here.
So as much as I love beautiful buildings
and beautiful cities, there aren't a lot
of natural spaces here.
Um, but it looks like that is changing.
Sunshine
Trees
Walking
You may have felt that getting outside
is good for your health.
Like for me, I have to go outside to calm down,
to feel better.
It's necessary.
But it might be necessary for you too.
More and more studies are showing that lack
of direct sunlight causes health issues
such as vitamin D deficiency,
which can contribute to tiredness, fatigue, and low mood.
It's easy to see why in a city,
I mean it's artificial light, you're not seeing nature.
You're not seeing the sunrise or the sunset
and there are some days where you might
not even get to experience the sun.
Um, so I get it.
This isn't only mental.
Dr. Levine of Arizona State University claims
that we have created for ourselves, a modern way of living
that clashes with the way we're meant to be.
And his studies have shown that the more sedentary we are,
the more at risk we are of sitting ourselves to death
which is kind of terrifying,
but maybe it's the wake up call we need.
So since we're all moving towards cities,
could we design them to help us get outdoors?
I wanted to go to three cities across the country
that are taking back access to wild spaces
and making sure anyone can choose to get outside.
What happens when people start dreaming
around an old, industrial site?
Big Marsh is a steel mill, turned bike park
in the Southeast side of Chicago.
Located on almost three hundred acres of open space,
it's helping to contribute to the creation
of an outdoor recreation hub just twenty-five minutes
from the urban core of Chicago.
- My name is Stephen Bell.
I am the Center Director at Big Marsh Park.
In the past, before the park district took it over,
the site was used as a dumping ground for by-products
of the steelmaking industry
so all sorts of stuff whether, you know,
bowling balls, we pulled cars out, uh mattresses,
box springs, like you name it it's dumped there.
- So I'm with Chantelle.
- Hi!
(laughing)
- She's gonna get me on a bike!
And she will find out how coordinated I am
Or uncoordinated!
So for anybody into biking, this is huge
because there are so many tracks to explore.
Um, and it's just so nice to think that people can
be getting outside in a place like this
in the middle of their city.
- My name is Brenda and I'm actually from this area here.
The fact that this is outdoors and in an urban area
We don't have many forest reserves in our city.
It has its own psychological affect on you
and its own healing effect on you just enjoying the outdoors
- This area, which had no use before, is now being really
repurposed into something that everybody can enjoy.
And this is basically right out my back door.
- Okay so there are also four other past industrial lands
that will eventually all be connected,
creating a place to bike, hike, paddle, and climb
all within the city of Chicago.
But for many, urban living means urban transportation
and that means not having access to a car.
This makes accessing wilderness spaces
incredibly challenging especially in places like LA.
But what if cities helped make that easier?
(machine beeps)
Okay, this is me.
Last year, LA made a bus available to take hikers
specifically to hike from the city.
So I took the bus from a suburb in LA to The San Gabriels.
I am on a bus right now up to Runyon Canyon
which is a hike close to LA.
(cheerful music)
So I just got dropped off by the bus
and the hike is just up here a few blocks.
(cheerful music)
People are excited about the opportunity
to access the mountains.
The Memorial Park to Sam Merrill Trail head had
over nine thousand riders from April through August.
Which all just goes to show that we are homesick
for our natural habitat and that it's time to change course.
While this is nice, not everyone has time
or mountains nearby even if they want to get outside.
That's where commuting comes in.
(gentle music)
DC's Capital Trails Coalition is creating a twenty-year plan
that will create one of the largest trail networks
in the U.S.
This regional initiative helps connect
over seven hundred miles of trails.
- My name is Katie Harris
and I'm the Trails Coalition Manager.
Our roadways are more and more packed every single day
and so it's really important for us that we're building
systems where people don't have to rely on their cars.
They can rely on walking and biking and transit.
- People now use trails to commute to work,
recreationally just to be outside
The trails aren't just for transportation.
It's about public health.
It's about having greener spaces.
It's about the environment.
- Trail networks are connecting people to the communities,
to other communities as in, and then in turn, to the
businesses of people that rely on work in those communities.
(cheerful music)
- Other cities are starting to take notice
of the benefits of green spaces.
Like the Atlanta BeltLine,
The San Francisco Bay Area Ridge Trail,
or New York City's High Line.
We know that our natural habitat is good for us.
It's even been shown that patients with a hospital window
and daylight have better chances of healing.
Sitting in a cubicle and just sitting indoors
some of it is unavoidable, of course.
We have jobs or we have responsibilities, but um
let's be making an effort to get outside
and get back to our nature.
So one example of this is a sunset.
It happens once a day, right?
It's beautiful, it puts you totally in the moment.
So when was the last time that you stopped and saw one?
(upbeat music)
Thank you all so much for watching this episode.
We were really excited to share it with you
and we're really looking forward to covering
some interesting topics in the outdoors
things that you care about.
So whatever your comments are about this episode,
we would love to hear them as well as
any future ideas that you have.
So leave them in the comments below
and we'll see you next time!
(upbeat music)