What is the main message of Losing Eden?

The main message of Losing Eden is the urgent need for humanity to reconnect with nature to save our planet.

Who is the author of Losing Eden?

Lucy Jones is the author of Losing Eden.

Nature & the Environment

Losing Eden Book Summary - Losing Eden Book explained in key points

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Losing Eden summary

Name: Losing Eden
Rating: 4.5 (76 reviews)
Author: Lucy Jones

Lucy Jones

Why Our Minds Need the Wild

4.5 (76 ratings)

31 mins

Brief summary

Losing Eden by Lucy Jones is an insightful examination of our relationship with nature and the consequences of disconnecting from it. It reveals how our disconnection has led to environmental crises and offers a hopeful vision for restoration.

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Plants & Trees

Table of Contents

Losing Eden
Summary of 9 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? Learn why nature is so important to psychological well-being.

Nowadays, most of us spend the majority of our time indoors, and this alienation from the natural world is impacting our health. We’ve become so disconnected from nature that we now think of the earth’s flora and fauna as either an unnecessary frill or something to be dominated and exploited. And yet, new scientific findings show that our dismissal of the natural world actually goes against human nature. Our estrangement from the planet that sustains our existence is causing us severe psychic harm.

But how can a person be moved to care about nature if they were never exposed to it? Will a lack of greenery in your life affect your mental health if you don’t know what you’re missing? These blinks provide insights into the science of our connection with nature and how we can reimagine our relationship with the earth as equal and mutually beneficial.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how those who lack access to the outdoors suffer psychologically;
about Wild Law, which aims to give nature a legal personality; and
what forest-bathing is, and why it can lower stress.

Lack of engagement and connection with nature has triggered a global mental health crisis.

When author Lucy Jones was recovering from alcoholism, four elements helped her start anew: psychotherapy, medication, community, and nature. The latter came as a surprise – she found it almost by accident when she moved into a new apartment and became emotionally attached to a pear tree outside her bedroom window.

Jones loved to gaze at it: rooted, growing, changing, living. When scaffolding went up for construction work on her upstairs neighbors’ apartment, blocking her view of the tree, she realized how much she’d relied on the calmness it brought. Her mental health even began to suffer.

So she set out to find out why and landed on a new, important area of scientific research that explores how contact with nature affects our minds.

The key message here is: Lack of engagement and connection with nature has triggered a global mental health crisis.

Emerging scientific evidence shows that contact with natural environments actually promotes better mental and physical health on a cellular level. For example: in multiple studies, neuroscientist Christopher Lowry injected mice with M. vaccae, a species of bacteria found in soil. He found that it boosted their serotonin levels and prevented stress. “These studies . . . leave us wondering if we shouldn’t all spend more time playing in the dirt,” he told the BBC.

What’s more, people typically contain vastly more microbial cells than human cells in their bodies. Microbiota promote health when they’re diverse – which is possible through exposure to a variety of organisms, more often found outdoors. Diverse microbiota can treat or block chronic, systemic inflammation, which can lead to cardiovascular disease, inflammatory disorders, and depression.

Take one 2018 study that examined 20 young men who’d grown up in either the city or the country. They were asked to prepare a speech and do a tricky mental arithmetic test. The urban dwellers had higher numbers of white blood cells and pro-inflammatory cytokines in the blood, a higher social stress response – suggesting that people who live in cities are at increased risk of chronic inflammation.

Today, most people live in cities, spend more time indoors, and have limited exposure to the diverse organisms that make up the natural world. This is resulting in an extinction of experience, a term coined by American ecologist and entomologist Robert Pyle. This describes a vicious cycle that links apathy with ecological destruction: the extinction of common species leads to ignorance and a fraying of our connection with the natural world – which leads to lack of care for the planet. This, in turn, brings about even further extinction, which fuels the mental health problems that result from a more barren world.

We are genetically predisposed to connect with the natural world.

Don’t you feel calmer walking beneath majestic trees with large canopies than on an exposed, busy street with no greenery? According to biologist E.O. Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis, this is a preference that’s coded in your DNA. Wilson introduced the term biophilia in his 1984 book of the same name – pioneering the idea that humans have a genetically determined affinity for the natural world.

According to Wilson, even if individuals don’t feel an innate connection with nature, our brains are marked by our past evolutionary responses and behavior. Today, researchers are successfully testing Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis through habitat theory: the idea that we mostly live in park-like grasslands with clusters of trees and water because our ancient ancestors sought out such environments to increase their chances of survival.

Forging a connection with nature in childhood is key to mental and physical development.

While we all have a lot to lose as we grow more disconnected from nature, our children are perhaps the most vulnerable. Consider this: in the United Kingdom, three out of four children aged five through 12 now spend less time outdoors than prison inmates, who are required by the United Nations to get at least one hour of exercise outside every day.

Technology is perhaps the most obvious culprit preventing children from getting outside. Kids under seven spend more than twice as much time looking at screens as they do being outside. But that’s not the only thing contributing to their disassociation from the natural world. A widespread safety-first mentality has made parents fearful of letting their children roam, and more congested roads mean it’s not as safe for kids to explore the outdoors.

Nature’s multi-sensory stimulation restores our minds, our nervous system, and our immune system.

Jones had been sober for a couple of years, but she still struggled with feelings of doubt, resentment, and frustration. One day, she went for a swim in a cove in Scotland, and these emotions began to recede. She was simultaneously calm and energized; her brain felt “scoured clean.”

It might have been a reaction to the negative ions that are abundant around the ocean and other natural areas where air molecules are broken apart by crashing waves, moving air, or sunlight. Negative ions can help the brain release serotonin and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, calming the body and the mind.

People, and by extension societies, need connection with the natural world in order to flourish.

So, if greater access to nature is good for individual mental health, can simple adjustments to landscape design promote happiness in communities? Studies suggest they can. Robert Taylor Homes was a public housing project built on the south side of Chicago in 1962. It was composed of 28 buildings situated between roads and railway tracks, totally isolated from nature. Violent crime and drugs were rampant. A few buildings had trees or grass nearby, while others were barren and paved with concrete.

In the late 1990s, the University of Illinois conducted studies at Robert Taylor Homes to examine the impact of physical environments on well-being. The researchers looked at the effect that trees had on people’s lives – and found that just a few trees and some grass near an apartment could significantly improve the residents’ mental health and cognitive functioning.

Equitable access to nature could reduce the socioeconomic health gap.

Time spent in nature often falls on socioeconomic lines. As we’ve seen in earlier blinks, there are fewer parks in deprived parts of towns and cities than in affluent neighborhoods, which tend to be more verdant. But it goes deeper than that. People in lower socioeconomic groups or from racial and ethnic minorities have less access to natural areas. Vulnerable populations suffer more exposure to pollution and toxic chemicals. And society is only becoming more unbalanced as our alienation from nature is exacerbated.

Many people believe that worrying about the natural world is a privileged concern – something only the wealthy bother themselves with. But when proximity to nature can determine your health outcome, caring about the natural world is not a luxury. Research by Professor Rich Mitchell of Glasgow University posits that greener neighborhoods could reduce the health gap between the rich and poor and thus make our society more equal – a concept known as equigenesis.

A society-wide transformation is needed to restore the relationship between humans and nature.

Białowieża, a forest on the Polish-Belarusian border, is the largest ancient primeval forest in Europe. Within it, there’s a strictly reserved area that has been mostly left alone for thousands of years. With a plethora of bird, reptile, mammal, lichen, fungi, moss, and liverwort species, Białowieża is an important site for ecological and scientific research; scientists travel from all over the world to discover new interactions between species and to understand biodiversity.

And yet, despite years of protection, it was significantly logged in 2010. Six years later, citing a bark beetle infestation, then-environmental minister Jan Szyszko altered the forest laws and tripled the amount of logging allowed to take place. The minister’s personal priest Tomasz Duszkiewicz cited the Bible’s instruction that man should “subdue” the land, but activists, ecologists, and scientists claim this was merely a ruse to chop down more of the forest.

The way we think, write, and talk about nature can reorient us toward our natural biophilia.

Although nature’s effect on the psyche is not often spoken about in contemporary psychological discourse, Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, was an early advocate of nature’s mental health benefits.

He believed that we need to acknowledge the primitive layers in our psyche, using the metaphor of a house to illustrate the concept. Imagine two storys: the top floor was added in the nineteenth century, renovated in the twentieth, and given a modern loft extension in the twenty-first. The ground floor was built in the sixteenth century with stonework from the 1100s, and the cellar is Roman, beneath which is a Neolithic cave.

To stimulate real, lasting change, we must amend how we design cities, enact legislation, and consider our health.

Svalbard is an Arctic archipelago north of Norway. Only a couple thousand people live there, and in winter, it’s dark by noon, so you need to carry a flashlight. Polar bears roam around freely. There is only one settled town, Longyearbyen, which is home to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

This vault protects hundreds of thousands of plant seed species – an agricultural safety net in case of global disaster caused by climate change. It’s one of hundreds around the world, but it houses the greatest diversity. For Jones, it was a chilling reminder of what our future will look like if we don’t alter our course in the wake of ecological collapse.

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What is Losing Eden about?

Losing Eden (2020) explores how modern alienation from the natural world is causing a global mental health crisis – and how we can reintroduce nature to our lives. Author Lucy Jones embarks on a fascinating journey through new scientific research that shows why forging a bond with nature is critical for our health and wellness, while also raising awareness about the alarming effects of its absence.

Losing Eden Review

Losing Eden (2020) by Lucy Jones explores our deep connection to nature and the consequences of its loss. Here's why this book is worth reading:

The book offers a thought-provoking exploration of our relationship with the natural world, urging readers to reflect on their place within it.
With insightful research and interviews, it examines the psychological, emotional, and physical benefits of spending time in nature, making it a compelling read for nature enthusiasts.
Through its compelling narratives and thoughtful analysis, the book sheds light on the urgent need for environmental conservation, reminding readers of our responsibility to protect the planet for future generations.

Best quote from Losing Eden

Without our realizing it, our genes may well govern our aesthetic preferences.

—Lucy Jones

Who should read Losing Eden?

Nature lovers who are worried about the future of the planet
Anyone interested in boosting their mental health
People concerned with socioeconomic inequality

About the Author

Lucy Jones is a writer, journalist, and author of Foxes Unearthed (2015). She previously worked at NME and the Daily Telegraph and has written about culture, science, and nature for BBC Earth, BBC Wildlife, The Sunday Times, the Guardian, and the New Statesman.

Categories with Losing Eden

Nature & the Environment Society & Culture Mindfulness & Happiness

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