London has lots of nice parks. There was much more greenery around me in London than there is in the ‘leafy’ suburb, elsewhere in the country, that I currently live in.

London is a bit of an outlier. It's high on the list of major cities with the most green space, at about 34%. It has more green space than any city in the UK, and it is the world's largest urban forest at over 8 million trees.

By comparison, Los Angeles is the only major US city with as much green space (the next is NYC at 27%), even though the US is 40 times bigger than the UK.

> and it is the world's largest urban forest at over 8 million trees.

According to this, Toronto has 10 million, and honestly I'm sort of surprised it's that low... do you have a source for the "largest" claim?

https://www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/special/UrbanFores...

> It has more green space than any city in the UK

That's probably technically true, but a bit misleading. It's also pretty much the only city in the UK where it's difficult to get out into actual countryside. I used to live in Bristol and it certainly felt greener and more rural than London, even if it technically isn't.

Agreed. The closest parks to me do not offer serene nature. They offer a diverse mix of people (and dogs) engaged in all kinds of different activities. It's entertaining and stimulating but I doubt it provides the benefits the author is talking about.

Especially since they keep mentioning forests and there is nothing remotely like a "forest" in walking distance from my home in NY. Nor was there was I lived in SF, and not even in the suburbs where I grew up.

I live in Boise Idaho. While there are forests, none of them are within walking distance.

Having a forest in walking distance is a rarity.

True, but if you live near Presidio in SF or Prospect Park in Brooklyn (as examples) you can totally walk to a forest! And in many places where people own cars you and just drive 5 or 10 minutes. But clearly these circumstances are far from universal. Most people are lucky to have a half-decent park within a 10 minute walk.