A new series of Eco Eye returns to RTÉ One this evening and environmentalist Duncan Stewart, award-winning science communicator Dr Lara Dungan and ecologist Anja Murray are investigating Ireland's major environmental issues.
In the first episode of brand new Eco Eye, Dr Lara Dungan investigates the relationship between environment and life expectancy and explores what it would take to redesign the environment to improve our health.
Recent research has found that living close to parks and nature have lower rates of anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, mental illness, respiratory and neurological diseases than those living in ‘concrete jungles’.
Unfortunately, people’s access to a healthy environment is unequal across the country. In tonight's episode, Dr. Lara Dungan will explore if it’s possible to retrofit the places we live in to increase our health. She will interview patients who have found that their two-hour stroll in Avondale Forest Park vastly improves their mental well-being, and talks with experts who back up the science behind such treatment.
She will also look into the availability of green space in urban jungles like Dublin, and talk with community groups such as the Bridgefoot Street Park campaign whose passionate members are fighting for these kinds of natural oases.
Throughout the series, Duncan will look at homes of the future, how we can combat flooding and how communities are taking on the waste crisis.
Anja will be exploring the state of nature in Ireland today, what we can do to clean up our water and why the seaweed issue you’ve never heard of is so important.
Lara will be looking at everything in the environment that can and will affect our health. Including climate change and how to fix it.
