NPR is both arrogant and ignorant more often than I’d like
American newsrooms view scientific research conducted anywhere except in an American institution as not real science. NPR is no exception in this case.
Weekend edition Saturday, 18 September 2021, reported on a “new” thing called “Forest Bathing.” Since I’m familiar with Shinrin Yoku, the Japanese phrase poetically translated as Forest Bathing, I was surprised and disappointed at the poor coverage NPR presented.
I poked around online and discovered very similar stories being reported on Fox. The underlying theme of both the Fox and NPR coverage is that this is some kind of weird foreign thing; something only partly validated by only one Ivy League school. Obviously the reporter and producer didn’t bother to dig any deeper or they might have found this excellent video by BBC:
However, I’m afraid that typical American arrogance would have immediately dismissed this video as a bunch of malarkey if only because the researcher who has been studying the topic since the 1980’s doesn’t speak very good English. Doesn’t matter that there are reams of evidence based proof that this particular approach to nature therapy works — Americans don’t speak, read or write Japanese, therefore this is like Zen or one of those other obscure not American things.
I’m totally amazed that the story went out without someone at least doing a Google search on the subject. Not only are there plenty of solid results in English, but there are also dozen of organizations around the world, including in the United States, that are formalizing the practice of forest bathing as a valid therapy. Note that this is not a hike in the woods. The health benefits do require some training and practice in order to work. For example, while physical therapy needs to involve specific body movements to work, forest bathing needs to involve specific mental activity; activity that works best in a forest.
And there is also an American organization training guides who can show people how to “forest bathe.”
