Reframing Health Through a Doughnut Economics Lens Traditional health metrics tell us what is happening—life expectancy gaps, obesity rates, physical inactivity. But they rarely explain why these patterns persist or how they connect to broader economic and ecological systems. Using the Doughnut Economics framework, we can visualize Middlesbrough's health challenge as a system operating outside the "safe and just space for humanity." This approach, developed by economist Kate Raworth and...

Middlesbrough's tree canopy currently covers around 11.8% of the city. By comparison, the average across England is 16%. To reach that level, we would need to plant trees across an area roughly the size of 30 football pitches. But planting is only half the story. Across England, ambitious tree planting schemes have been severely impacted by drought, with hundreds of thousands of saplings dying due to lack of water and poor planning for environmental conditions (The Guardian, 2023). This is...