globalbriefs


News and resources to inspire concerned citizens to work together in building a healthier, stronger society that benefits all.


Little Thumbs Gardening Helps Children Grow


Gardening provides many varieties of engagement for children: designing, planting and maintaining a garden patch; harvesting, preparing and sharing food; working cooperatively in groups; learning about science and nutrition; and creating art and stories inspired by their garden experiences. When third, fourth and fifth grade students par- ticipating in a one-year gardening program were sur- veyed for life skills, they showed significant increases in self-understanding, interpersonal relationship skills and the ability to work in groups, compared with


nonparticipating students. Qualitative surveys of 52 second and third grade students working in a community garden classroom program in San Antonio, Texas, further revealed the children were likely to have more positive bonding experiences with their parents and other adults.


A study of children with learning disabilities that engaged in gardening mea- sured increases in nonverbal communication skills, awareness levels of the advan- tages of order, understanding of how to participate in a cooperative effort, and the ability to form positive relationships with adults. Juvenile offenders that gardened showed improved self-esteem, interpersonal relationships and attitudes towards school. Overall, gardening has been recognized by many studies as a therapeutic healing activity that can positively impact mental health and well-being.


Source: University of Colorado-Denver; Health Sciences Center


Freeing Minds Yoga Mitigates Prison Recidivism


Overcrowding is a serious issue in American pris- ons partly because the rate of recidivism (return) is high. A 1994 study showed that 67.5 percent of the 300,000 adult prisoners released in 15 states were re-arrested within three years.


James Fox, founder of the nonprofit Prison


Yoga Project (PrisonYoga.com) believes that part of the problem is that the U.S. prison system overly emphasizes punishment during incarceration and


that programs such as yoga classes might lower the rate of recidivism. He is an advocate for restorative justice and has worked with prisoners for 10 years. The theory is that yoga and meditation help prison inmates develop important emotional and social skills, including impulse control and willpower, and thus reduce tendencies toward antisocial and criminal behaviors. Fox observes how anyone that adheres to the practice can develop mindfulness, patience, diligence and self-motivation.


The Prison Yoga Project provides training for yoga teachers that want to work in prisons. Fox also would like to maintain a scholarship fund to help former inmates do teacher training, so they can make a career out of the practice.


Source: Dowser.org natural awakenings March 2012 25


Bee Wary Nature’s Wake-Up


Set to Snooze


Bees are awakening earlier each spring, according to a Rutgers Uni- versity study published in the Pro- ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists report that global warming over the past 130 years has caused several species of North American bees to emerge about 10 days earlier than they did previously, with most of the shift occurring since 1970.


Scientific research known as phenology measures the timing of lifecycle events of animals and plants. “A shift in 10 days is a lot from the point of view of an insect whose lifetime is measured in weeks,” says Rutgers Entomologist Rachael Winfree, co-author of the study.


Because bees are the world’s most important pollinators of flow- ers and plants, any change in this crucial relationship could prove devastating. Study leader Ignasi Bartomeus, Ph.D., says. “If bees and plants responded differently to climate change, bees could emerge in the spring before plants were flowering, in which case the bees would die because they wouldn’t have anything to eat. Or plants could flower before the bees emerged, in which case the plants would not be pollinated and would fail to reproduce.”


Source: USA Today


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72