The issues involving greenery around us

The Natural History Museum in England says everyone should live minutes away from a green space. Even environmentalists believe that it’s important for people to have that green space in which to change their outlook on life and to appreciate nature which is often lost in a busy city.

With this in mind, the UK government has developed a new plan to restore nature that often gets destroyed during urban development. The purpose of this plan is to provide every household in the UK with greenery or water within 15 minutes of where they live.

It is true that many large cities do have parks but not everyone has one nearby so not everyone goes to or sees greenery on a regular basis.

When I was living in London, I only recall two places where there was a park that was walking distance away from our house. One was literally over our garden wall. When we went upstairs and looked out of the window there was a huge park where I often went for a quick walk. It was literally 15 seconds from our front door. Years before that another was also close by and could have been 15 minutes away but we didn’t have a car back then so we walked to most places in that neighbourhood even if it was more than 15 minutes away. So I don’t know whether we really did have greenery near us in that area. We certainly didn’t have a lake or river or canal.

In fact the only places I truly recall as being greenery in a city as large as London were Regent’s Park and Hyde Park. That is truly a green area. When you’re in it, you do tend to forget you’re in the middle of a bustling city. But to get to it required advanced planning by the person going. One couldn’t just walk out of the door in the morning and say you’re going for a quick walk in Regent’s Park or Hyde Park. You’d have to get on the train or take a taxi or drive there. Depending on where you lived, it could take up to an hour’s commute just one way. There are, however, some small towns in England as a whole where homes look out onto a park. These residential complexes are almost like housing estates in the shape of a giant cul-de-sac with houses built around a huge green play area. It’s often a place where children play and teenagers can hang out with friends after school.

I will say one thing about going to parks in general. Although it’s nice to have greenery around you with trees and the sound of birds, with some kind of body of water and wildlife running around, there are some aspects of greenery that not all residents would welcome.

Look at it this way, most of us live in bustling cities but, although it’s noisy and not at all conducive to nature and wild animals, we are still inundated with one menacing pest that is very hard to get rid of. I’m talking about pigeons. These birds are everywhere and no matter how hard you try to shoo them away, they don’t seem to budge. They still sit around and their droppings cause quite a bit of damage to the façade of buildings. But these are the only creatures that we see in most cities in the world. Of course, cities do have other birds around such as sparrows, bulbuls, crows and mynah birds. But in some areas one hardly sees or hears them.

But with having greenery so close by for everyone this could all change. Everyone could see birds and other wildlife, and that is great. I love waking up in the morning to the sound of birds.

But there is a slight downside to having so much greenery in so many places. With greenery come the attractive wildlife, and that is great, but along with attractive also come the unattractive creatures. I am talking about insects. I am talking about mosquitoes, flies, ants and bees. Bees are great. We’ve learnt that, without these pollinators, we would have a shortage of fruit and vegetables. But going to a park in England meant running into bees and the risk of getting stung.

Have you ever opened your balcony door to find flies all over your kitchen? And that’s just from the plant beds around our roads. Imagine the swarms you’d get if greenery was everywhere?