Climate change, leisure and health : the double-edged sword of leisure and the environment

This chapter questions and critiques the health of the environment in relation to leisure. From a socioecological perspective, the three interconnected dimensions of social, environmental and economic health and wellbeing are considered. In particular, we examine how our leisure practices contribute to environmental degradation and climate change. Unquestionably, leisure can directly and indirectly impact upon the natural environment. Many leisure activities occur in nature-based settings where overuse and abuse of Mother Earth has dire ramifications. Likewise, our insatiable appetite for the latest gadgets or equipment coupled with our unbridled consumerism has global and local impacts on our social and environmental health. We need to reimagine the ways of doing leisure and pay deep respect to the Indigenous warning that ‘we are only as healthy as the land we live on’. Finally, we conclude by offering pro-environmental alternatives or nature-attuned behaviours that will result in leisure activities in nature that are immersive for the betterment of people and planetary health.