If you drive a car at rush hour in a city like Phoenix, Arizona, or read the news about the latest antics of the anti-environmentalists and climate change deniers who currently hold substantial power in the U.S., it is easy to feel as if all is lost.

But if you turn off the news and instead use your smartphone to search for someplace nearby to go for a hike, you may be pleasantly surprised.

After a visit to the awe-inspiring cloud forests of Costa Rica, I wrote an essay about the psychological benefits of birdwatching. Research in social psychology has long shown that when we write out an argument and make it public, we convince ourselves (e.g., Kiesler & Zanna, 1969). So, when I returned to Phoenix, I was committed to making birdwatching a regular part of my life back here.

Just this morning, I drove to a nearby spot, at the confluence of three desert rivers, where........

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