The world around us plays a key role in our health, though “nature deficiency” isn’t a diagnosis that you’ll likely hear from your doctor. On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes is joined by journalist Phoebe Weston to talk about how the biodiversity crisis is happening in our own bodies and how efforts to reverse it are succeeding. 
Weston says the biodiversity crisis is made up of “lots of local losses stitched together into this global picture.” Noticing species that go missing, like the decline of migratory flycatchers and swallows in her hometown, is a way to see the local side of the global climate crisis. Weston also tracks the links between human health and biodiversity, from farming and meat consumption, urbanization, and bird migration. 
Weston also reports on “nature deficiency,” the idea that we’re not getting enough access to healthy nature. This results in a loss of the biodiversity of our microbiomes: the tiny bacteria, fungi, worms, etc. that live inside and on our bodies. She says we need to keep our “micro citizens” healthy. A program in Finland is trying to re-wild school yards to improve kids’ developmental and physical health through access to a more microdiverse environment.
They also discuss the “luxury effect” (the relationship between wealth and biodiversity), how cars are “ecosystem engineers,” and The Guardian’s “Age of Extinction” coverage.
You can learn more about local biodiversity loss at the Remembrance of Lost Species event on December 4. 

Phoebe Weston is an environment reporter at The Guardian focussing on global biodiversity loss – what is happening, why it matters, and what we can do about it.
Featured image: an illustration from The Birds of Illinois and Wisconsin (1909) via Flickr.
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