Goes Without Saying

Researchers at the University of Illinois have announced, with appropriate public-relations fanfare, that trees are beneficial to the people living near them.

Duh.

Greenery, the scientists say, has a demonstrably calming effect upon human passions, in particular anger and hostility. They cite statistics showing that residents of a landscaped Chicago housing project reported far fewer incidents of domestic violence than those in buildings without trees, that children played more "creatively" on grass than on concrete, and that parklike surroundings encouraged relaxed sociability - walking and talking, presumably, rather than heading hell-for-leather home, avoiding eye contact and clutching the Mace.

"All kinds of things that are aesthetically nice have measurable and important effects on human behavior," the reasearchers discovered. "Heart rates improve; blood pressure goes down." The team concluded that green amenities are needed just as much in urban neighborhoods as "streets, sewers, and electricity."

Depend upon it, science can almost always find a way to spend money proving what is perfectly obvious to the rest of us.