From "Blue spaces: why time spent near water is the secret of happiness" by (The Guardian).
I don't know who's getting the £176m worth of health benefit here. Everyone in the world? Everyone in the U.K.? It can't be per person!
But I'm familiar with this idea of putting a monetary value on proximity to the "blue space" of water. The received wisdom in Madison, Wisconsin in the 1980s was that our lakes were the equivalent of $20,000 in salary per year, so that, say, a $35,000 salary was really the same as a $55,000 salary in a place without lakes (or, I suppose, other "blue space").
Here's a screenshot of our lakefulness:
I'm not the first person to write "lakefulness" on the internet, but I am the first to write this slogan: Lakefulness is wakefulness.
And here's that quote from the first page of "Moby-Dick":
Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries—stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as everyone knows, meditation and water are wedded forever.From this morning's sunrise glimpses:
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How lucky that row boat got right in the foreground. It definitely makes the picture.
Inga is rich: she is always at sea.
IMHO even better than the other two. The rowing team at their practice adds interest.
Madison is beyond great, but only for six or seven months a year. Does water under a foot of ice, under a foot of snow count?
obviously, the Best Part about Trout fishing, is standing knee deep in moving water
oh; the trout catching part isn't too bad, either
So, the people up in Ashland, Bayfield, and Iron counties are living in blue space paradises?
I once said "I'd take a 20% pay cut to live near the mountains". that was back when my knees allowed me to go to Vail or Stowe each year.
Lakes: Not so much, unless I could afford lakefront property, which adds $150-=250K to the price of your house MINIMUM here in Oakland county, Michigan. The number of lakes we have up here is stunning. Puts your 4 to shame, professor.
OTOH, if I had had enough foresight to put 20% of my salary to lakefront property in the 80's, I'd be reaping the benefits of that investment when I wish to retire in a few years.
The controversial hypothesis that humans had semi aquatic ancestry has some validation in our general physical aspects that have similarities to other aquatic and semi aquatic mammals. Link because it is too convoluted to explain
Of course it hasn't been proven but does possibly explain our affinity to the ocean and things aquatic.
There is something relaxing, soothing, exhilarating even about being near water and the ocean. Some say it is the negative ions around moving water: ocean, beaches, waterfalls, stream rapids.
And yes. Waterfront property is more valuable than non water front properties. Maybe because there are less opportunities to be on a waterfront as opposed to surrounded by dry land. Supply and demand :-) Maybe because we have an instinctual desire to be near and IN the water.
"Lakefulness is wakefulness."
So you're loke?
boats, Blue Spaces, meditation and water...
...Zen Yacht-a Mendota
good on ya
I love the water. I don't live in view of water but I do live in a national forest so my views are very nice and the stars are SPECTACULAR!
That said I would live by the water if I could afford to but no way is that happening with prices so high near the water. Maybe they meant you would have to make any extra 20,000 a year for a water view because it costs that much more. Not that it's WORTH that much more.
...speaking of lakefulness and, more generally, overall metropolitan ambiance, do you (or anyone) have an opinion to share on this:
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/11/03/madison-mayor-asks-pentagon-reconsider-city-top-choice-f-35-jets.html/amp?__twitter_impression=true
Man! What's that thing out my window? Oh yeah, Lake Michigan.
Chicago--come for the fun, stay for the taxes...and the good government...and the weather.
Ice fishing: A jerk with a line waiting for a jerk on the line.
The Four Lakes of Madison
Four limpid lakes,--four Naiades
Or sylvan deities are these,
In flowing robes of azure dressed;
Four lovely handmaids, that uphold
Their shining mirrors, rimmed with gold,
To the fair city in the West.
By day the coursers of the sun
Drink of these waters as they run
Their swift diurnal round on high;
By night the constellations glow
Far down the hollow deeps below,
And glimmer in another sky.
Fair lakes, serene and full of light,
Fair town, arrayed in robes of white,
How visionary ye appear!
All like a floating landscape seems
In cloud-land or the land of dreams,
Bathed in a golden atmosphere!
-Longfellow
I remember a while back reading something about how when people are asked to envision their ideal place to live, a large majority would describe a home by a sea or lake.
That said, our coastlines tend to be a bit overdeveloped in this country. Recovery from hurricanes has become astronomically expensive due to the crazy amount of houses that have been built all along the eastern seaboard as was as the golf coast over the past several decades.
"The received wisdom in Madison, Wisconsin in the 1980s was that our lakes were the equivalent of $20,000 in salary per year, so that, say, a $35,000 salary was really the same as a $55,000 salary in a place without lakes."
Said prospective employers. I heard the same thing when the University of Washington offered me a faculty position. "The view (of Mt. Rainer) alone is worth $Xk/yr" (don't remember the exact amount). (It was a nice view.)
"I don't know who's getting the £176m worth of health benefit here."
This benefit is quantified because these people writing these papers lobbying for funding. The benefit will accrue to them.
For Ingachuck:
When the World is Running Down
I grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, and saw the water almost every day. I can't say that benefitted me much. I miss the bay, but not nearly enough to move back.
I’ve been lucky enough to live near water at certain points in my life. I definitely felt a positive impact.
Don’t ask me why but, the older I get, the more drawn I feel to nature. Drawn to it, and also nourished by it.
My daily bike commute is all distant horizons, albeit over corn and soybean fields.
Mountains are the oppressive thing. No views.
"If you can see Mount Rainier it is not raining - yet."
After all these years, finally a photo of the Men's Crew.
It's all fun and games till you get raped by a dolphin.
@Yancy Ward
thanks!
" Oh Sting, where is thy death?"
The best part of living on the water is that the direct view is unobstructed by a neighbor. That is the main benefit, it gives one a sense of space and if the water view is nice, that's an added benefit. Of course, all else being the same it adds to the property value.
Ah, for the open steppes, the big sky, and a string of horses.
I have a friend who tells me that science shows that all people -- even the savage esquimeaux -- are attracted to a mixed subtropical landscape that is typical of where the proto-humans happened to live, millions of years ago, and that this environment advanced their survival, and that is why all people are attracted to those landscapes today. I think he read about this clever idea in a science magazine. You need grassy plains, lakes, some trees, not heavy forest. Bipeds can stand in the plains and see the predators coming! Then they can climb up into trees!
This is supposed to be evidence of evolution, but I don't think so. How could you ever prove causality? It looks like a just-so story.
Anyhow, I told him that mankind's ideal landscape is also pretty much the Christian's idea of heaven. It is the American Midwest, for cryin' out loud.
tcrosse-
Longfellow jumped the shark on that one.
I live on a lake. I'd rather the ocean, but I'm OK with the lake. It's hard to quantify it until you do it.
Land animals returning to the water.
I have been looking at the Google Earth image. What is the Class of 1918 marsh? Did they not have something else to memorialize a class?
My plan is much simpler. I get up every morning and do 2 mile run to the gym.
Where I live we have only the town sewage treatment plant, which drains into an otherwise dry slough. One takes what one can get. Though not advisable to visit on one's own -- the unkempt nature park surrounding it is a place where drug deals are sometimes transacted -- it is the resort of green jays and great kiskadees. It is also a popular oding destination, insofar as anywhere can be said to be a popular oding destination.
Where ugliness is present on a large scale, you have to find beauty on a small scale, in the cracks, corners, and forgotten places. Microdosing beauty.
We go to Corpus to get away. I'd move there if I could, although I know that the ever-present humidity would wrinkle my books, fog my glasses, and depress me.
Life earth itself owes everything to land and water coming together in tidal rhythm under a warm sun. And the sounds of ocean breakers rolling in all night along the Atlantic coast is mystical experience. Mitchener's book called Chesapeake eloquently describe the ways of men and waters.
And then there is God's throne in Heaven. He set it up beside the Crystal Sea.
Local tax assessor says lakefront has a value of $1,200 per linear foot, taxes you accordingly.
Burlington and UVM have not only gorgeous lake views, but have a nice wilderness mountain park across the lake. I sometimes wonder if the Vanderbilts, who built a mini Biltmore in Vermont on Lake Champlain, only 5,000 acres, pushed through the Adirondack Park to protect their view. The view from there is great.
Doesn't it depend on if you're a water sign 8-;)
I'm happiest around water in the mountains.
A number of years ago, Ann wrote a post about horseshoe crab sex. That inspired me to write a short story about people turning into giant horseshoe crabs, and, well, having sex. Got paid $.06 a word for it, too. Maybe I should have dedicated it to this blog, but I wasn’t sure how that would be received.
The story references Rachel Carson’s book about the edge of the sea. The edge of water is what I love, not Melville’s big blank expanses. The margin tends to be a very messy place, at least here in Texas, but it is fertile, and teeming with invertebrates, which I love. My dad took me on collecting expeditions in the mud and saltgrass of Red Fish Bay for his marine biology class when I was a kid. I guess that’s what did it to me.
traditionalguy said...
Life earth itself owes everything to land and water coming together in tidal rhythm under a warm sun. And the sounds of ocean breakers rolling in all night along the Atlantic coast is mystical experience. Mitchener's book called Chesapeake eloquently describe the ways of men and waters.
And then there is God's throne in Heaven. He set it up beside the Crystal Sea.
11/4/19, 12:41 PM
Very well put. And beautifully put, I might add.
https://lakeshorepreserve.wisc.edu/visit/places/class-of-1918-marsh/
There’s info on the Class of 1918 Marsh. It’s some significant UW property next to the Lakeshore Preserve.
"... time spent near water is the secret of happiness ..."
San Francisco, ass-deep in needles and human feces...
Myrtle Beach SC, cheesy low-wage tourist trap...
Devils Island, Rikers Island, Alcatraz, and San Quentin is right on San Francisco Bay with the Larkspur Ferry passing so close you can almost reach out and touch it...
One benefit which is often difficult to quantify is the health benefit of engaging with the marine environment. To address this, the research develops an approach which can estimate the contribution aquatic physical activities makes to quality adjusted life years (QALYs) in monetary and non-monetary terms. Using data from the Health Survey for England, the research estimates that physical activities undertaken in aquatic environments at a national level provides a total gain of 24,853 QALYs. A conservative estimate of the monetary value of a QALY gain of this magnitude is £176 million.
From the abstract of the "£176 million" study.
What happens if the water level rises? No more Madison. Just one big lake.
@traditionalguy
Rev 4:6 was Tommy James' inspiration for Crystal Blue Persuasion found on our host's morning playlist
It's amazing the kind of barking crazy nonsense academics can come up with when you wave a grant at them.
I guess the shinrin yoku enthusiasts should trade their Deep Woods Off for some 50 SPF sunblock and head to the shore.
Sharks, greenhead flies, and jellyfish can harsh your wa, so set your expectations accordingly.
As Richard Gene says, “Go fishin’ when ya can, ’cause it’s gooood fer ya!”
Elizabeth Warren is going to be wanting a cut of that $20k worth of lake priveledge.
Professing intangible benefits will benefit someone else tangibly.
Even so, I moved from Michigan for a lower pay: not being cold was worth X. Not being traffic every day was worth Y. Not dealing with the idiots worth Z. I still made out like a bandit.
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