What sustainable business really needs in Singapore

In such a geographically constrained city-state, it’s hard not to notice and hear about the population growth planned for Singapore: from 4.5 million in 2007 when I arrived to 5.3 million by June 2012 with plans for 6.9 million within the next decade. This population level is what the Singapore government has determined the country needs to sustain its economy, bringing in the necessary skills and labor to support it.

What has likely not been considered are the collateral consequences on human health, and thus the economy, of packing more buildings and concrete into what was once a rain-forest island. Research in the areas of neuroscience, psychology and medicine has laid out for us a fact that most seem to have disregarded, but others have espoused for centuries: Humans Need Nature.

“The mortality of individuals, nations and even the planet itself is dependent on the recognition and acceptance that nature is part of us.”
 – Dr. Eva Selhub, Alan C. Logan N.D.¹

The fact is that as the population grows and businesses continue to build their Asia base of operations here, more than just downtown office buildings are being built upon this little island. Housing and large condo complexes to accommodate the increased populations are infringing upon the natural environment. The impacts of natural habitat destruction on other species is a critical and well-documented issue, of course, but at risk is also the same economic health of Singapore that the country has targeted to grow through its concrete agenda.

It’s not just Singapore that is confronted with this trend; soon 75% of the world’s population will be living in urban settings. What Singapore and the majority of the earth’s human population needs to recognise, is that the long-term impacts of urban environment and increased use of computers and other technologies do not do the human body or brain any good.

We can see it simply in the increasing levels of stress and mental disorders. Despite being rated the “Happiest City in Asia” (not a surprise, given the competition), surveys are also showing that Singapore has the second highest levels of stress in Asia, which has six of the top seven stressed-out countries around the world. The competitive environment, that starts with the race to get into the best schools and continues into the professional ranks, is showing its impact.

Survey after survey indicates that negative thoughts are on the rise here, resulting in highly reactive professionals and difficult and non-productive working relationships. Depression and anxiety disorders are becoming more and more common. And as the quality of life in Singapore declines, so does productivity. The impacts of stress on physical health and longevity are well-researched and documented.

As with concrete, our increasing use of technology also has an impact on mental health. Unfortunately, like a frog that can’t recognise the temperature in a slow-boiling pot, humans aren’t recognising the change in “screen time” over the past twenty years and how it has impacted their health.

To put numbers to it, the standard for what was seen as “problem users” in terms of hours spent in front of some type of screen, be it computer/tablet, TV, cinema, smart-phone, etc. was 27 hours per week in 1999. Today, such users are considered to be those that spend 12 or more hours PER DAY. In other words, the benchmark for what we consider to be a “problem user” has changed dramatically, yet the human brain’s capacity to reasonably manage that influx of data has not changed at all.

Whether it’s building scenes or computer screens, we continue to see their impact in higher rates of mental health disorders, childhood learning and behavioral disorders, sleep problems, declines in IQ, and lack of happiness, to name a few. Generally, stress, anxiety and depression are all at new highs.

All of these are the result of increases in the activity of the amygdala, the emotional part of the brain and part of the limbic system, which is designed to ensure your survival by detecting and responding to threats, through flight or fight mechanisms. It starts a chain reaction that ends with the production of cortisol and adrenaline that, if stimulated to continue chronically, spiral the brain into states of anxiety, mental and emotional dysfunction and depression.

In this discussion the threat response is to the unnatural settings that we have adopted into our lives over the last evolutionary blink of an eye. Yet we created that environment and sit within it, not knowing that our brains, which evolved over the past two million years in the natural environment to make us the conscious, relatively intelligent beings that we are, are not properly geared to handle it.

If reading this is stressing you out, creating anxiety and worry, there is a cure for that: Hit the trails. Only recognise that Singapore has far fewer trails. As of 2011, only 23% of the geography in Singapore consisted of parks and forests. That figure can only meaningfully go in one direction: Down. As a comparison, Japan, a far larger island, has forests and parks that comprise 67% of its land-mass.

“Wilderness is the raw material out of which man has hammered the artifact known as civilization… the shallow-minded modern who has lost his rootage in the land assumes that he has already discovered what is important.”
– Professor Aldo Leopold, 1948

So what does nature actually do for our mental health?

For the past 30 years, Japan has largely recognised the benefits of the natural environment, coining the term “Shinrin-Yoku” or “Forest bathing”, and establishing a national effort to educate and inspire its people to connect with nature. The studies around the world that influenced this program as well as those conducted since, using brain-imaging technology, have shown several brain-impacts of nature:

• EEG and MRI’s have shown greater levels of alpha wave activity and decreased heart rate, as well as increases in activity in the right part of the brain. All conditions associated with creative thought.
• Corroborative cognitive tests showing a 50% increase in creative scores as compared to scores in a typical urban setting.
• Higher alpha wave amplitudes and increases in the production of serotonin production, used in nerve cell communication and referred to as the “happy chemical”.

As a comparison, when we are stressed and/or depressed, alpha wave activity is reduced. Stress hormones, such as cortisol, flood the system and do serious damage if produced on an ongoing basis. They also suppress the immune system – such as antiviral natural killer cells, which is why chronically stressed people tend to catch a cold more often.

Surprisingly, studies in Japan at the Nippon Medical School showed that a full day trip into nature or even just two hours per day for three days in a row have a significant positive impact on immune system markers, lasting more than a week after.

Feelings of happiness also increase just from views of nature, igniting the anterior portions of the parahippocampal gyrus, which are rich in opioid receptors. These receptors are involved in the dopamine reward system and trigger feelings of wellness and enhance motivation for positive behavior modification (such as being resilient, focusing and being productive at work). Individuals who experience this increase are less likely to perceive themselves as stressed, more likely to form emotional bonds, dwell less on negative memories and be more productive.

Another study, this time in Korea, showed that scenes of nature provided a boost of activity in the anterior cingulate and the insula within the brain – both involved with empathy, emotional stability, positive outlook and love. In contrast urban settings activated areas of the brain associated with anger.

And it’s not just the sense of sight that plays an important role in this natural connection. Our olfactory, or sense of smell, is also heavily involved, directly impacting levels of dopamine and serotonin. What we hear and our sense of touch, as well as inherent senses we have yet to fully understand, are also almost certainly involved in our connection to nature.

Of all the ways that nature can positively affect our mood and mental capacity, it is at the atomic level that we see some off the greatest effect. Research has shown over the past few decades that the negative ions (oxygen molecules with a displaced electron) in the air of mountains, forests, caves, waterfalls and after lightning and rainstorms, have significant impacts on serotonin levels and cognitive performance.

So effective are negative ions that they equal the drug Prozac in its capacity to improve the mood and mental state of depressive patients, only without the unfortunate side effects of drugs. Air that is full of negative ions also helps to eliminate issues of allergies, by attaching to various particles of pollen and other allergens and dragging them to the ground.

Fortunately, we live in a rain-forest environment and experience plenty of lightning and rainstorms to provide us with ample negative ions. Unfortunately, urban environments, including steel structures, air conditioning, computers and technology and the synthetics within carpets and furniture draws off the negative ions, leaving only positive ions (carbon dioxide charged with an extra electron), which have the exact opposite effect of negative ions. As construction and development in Singapore continues, positive ions on the island will rise, requiring even more of the natural environment’s negative ions to bring balance to the air quality.

There is little doubt that we live in a faster-paced, more concrete and technologised world today, full of a constant flow of information that our brains and bodies have yet to adapt to. And so, like an overloaded computer, our brains need a reboot every so often, and for us that means reconnecting with the environment in which we evolved for two million years. Not doing so, and remaining unaware of the effects our increasingly urban lifestyles are having on our brains’performance,will limit our ability to perform as individuals and as an economy.

Here are several things you can do on a regular basis to develop a healthier, happier and more productive body-brain:

- If possible, live near some green spaces, parks and forests. Results have shown a dramatically reduced risk of being sick or even mortality for those living near nature. Negative ions and all.
- Have a plant at or within view of an office workstation. Doing so has proven to decrease risks of sick leave, reduces stress by 50%, and levels of anger, depressive thoughts and anxiety by 40%.
- Improve your concentration by walking mindfully for just 10 minutes once per day in nature. 20 minutes within nature will go further and significantly reduce levels of cortisol from anxiety and stress, improving focus and productivity.
- Put up a picture of natural scenes you feel connected to at your office or at home.
- Immerse yourself in nature once per month for two days, or one day every two weeks, to replenish the natural capacity your brain has to be resilient, creative and focused.
- After, or even during, a rainstorm, go outside; get your fix of negative ions.

The good news, as noted above, is that it does not take long for nature to have a positive impact on our mental and physical health, and we live in an environment that has what we need. The challenge for us on this small island is that the natural environment is not as abundant as it is in other countries; we must actively treasure and protect what we have.

The Singapore government continues to make conservation efforts through the maintenance of parks and organisations like the Singapore Environment Council. It is only through our engagement with the natural environment, however, that we can reap the benefits and ensure that their value is maintained, respected and protected from continued population growth and the resulting urban development.

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¹Your Brain on Nature, Selhub and Logan (2012). This article draws from material in this book, as well as from other sources and studies. Specific citations have been omitted. For reference information, please contact the author.