When I Retire: Volunteering For The Environment (Well, Actually, Even Before)

They always say it is never to early to start thinking about retirement, right?

I was happy to read that volunteering for the environment can do wonders for you in retirement (and I suspect before as well). A recent study done by researchers from Cornell found that "environmental stewardship is strongly linked to greater physical activity, better self-rated health and fewer symptoms of depression over a period of 20 years" in retirees. (I could only dig up the abstract for the original article but there is a review of it in the Cornell chronicle, you can access it here: "Study: Environmental Volunteering Linked To Improved Mental And Physical Health In Retirees." The review of the article emphasizes that, "researchers found that environmental volunteers are half as likely as non-volunteers to show depressive symptoms 20 year later, whereas other forms of volunteering lower one's risk by roughly 10 percent." Amazing stuff.

I particularly like this quotation from one of the study's authors, "Time spent outdoors in the natural environment is a critical factor linking volunteering to the health outcomes observed in this study." Interesting. Time spent outdoors is good for you!

Of course, I also noted that although the researchers were from Cornell, the study was done in Alameda, California. My idea of heaven as far as outdoors goes. So to reap the full benefits of environmental volunteerism in retirement you might have to move to California. I'm just saying...

At any rate, one more reason to care about the environment: it's good for you.