Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiSmell the Wildflowers, Kids
Attendance has been falling at America's National Parks since 1987. Blame videophilia, says a Nature Conservancy report.
Videophilia is the love of electronic media. Those screens may be showing Internet, video games, movies or just plain TV. Young Americans are so glued to video that many rarely venture into the natural world outside. That troubles environmentalists, who see a growing estrangement from nature in high-tech societies. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the new study reported a similar trend in Japan and Spain.
Of course, adults can be videophilic, too. I recall a recent splendid Sunday afternoon: Rather than skip into the golden sunlight, I stayed home to check e-mail and search for airfares to nowhere in particular. Then I watched a movie on TV. At least I knew what I was missing. That may not be the case for many of today's children, who have rarely experienced quality time with trees, rocks and frogs.
Author Richard Louv sees this as a sickness and has a name for it: "nature deficit disorder."
"Today, kids can tell you anything about the Amazon rain forest," Louv told me, "but not the last time they saw the leaves move."
Contact with nature does wonders for children, according to the Center for Environmental Health. It helps ease attention-deficit disorder, aids cognitive development, enhances creativity and reduces stress.
Louv thinks that video games shouldn't take all the rap for nature-deficit disorder. Parents don't encourage leisurely exploration of undeveloped landscapes. Some feel it wastes precious time.
"They're afraid that if they don't get the kids in Suzuki violin lessons they won't get into Harvard," said Louv, who wrote a book on nature-poor upbringings, "Last Child in the Woods."
Many parents also have a primal fear that a child in the wilds will be kidnapped or otherwise victimized by adults. Such cases are very rare, but the cable channels grab them and play the stories over and over - suggesting an epidemic of crime against children. As a result, Louv says, entire generations are being raised under "protective house arrest."
Environmentalists worry that the loss of direct contact with the natural world will eventually weaken Americans' commitments to conservation and biodiversity.
"Studies show almost to a person," Louv says, "that people with an environmental consciousness had a transcendent experience when they were kids."
What do you mean by "nature"? I had to ask.
Answer: Nature can be Yellowstone National Park, but also a clump of trees at the end of a cul-de-sac - an example of what ecologists call "nearby nature." To a biologist's eyes, the clump might not look like much, but to the child, it can seem a universe.
Louv also faults the environmental movement for this turning away from nature. Preschoolers are handed books about recycling and see the environment as a joyless thing. For older students, constant talk about global warming and loss of habitat is programming kids to associate nature with Armageddon.
Eventually, children should learn about the environmental threats, but first they must develop a firsthand love of nature. They have to simply go outdoors, listen to the wind, smell the wildflowers and look under rocks.
Louv urges fearful parents to go with their kids into natural surroundings. (The experience reduces their stress, too.) And they should support the Scouts, nature centers and other organizations that help children get outside. Playing a National Geographic special on whales to the kids in the back seat does not constitute a complete environmental education. Parents should take the kids for a walk in a park.
Nature-deficit disorder may be a growing malady but, fortunately, one that can be easily cured.
Providence Journal columnist Froma Harrop's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is fharrop@projo.com
2008, The Providence Journal Co.
11 Comments so far
Show AllI don't know about that...I was a day and a half hike up a mountain in NH and had to listen to rap blasting on a radio. They just can't turn it off. Is there a pill?
Spend more time discovering the natural world-- and less money-- and good things will happen. The artifice of the artificial is our punishment for losing touch with that which flourishes without the hand of man trying to make a buck.
Beware the deceitful campaign of the American Recreation Coalition dovetailing with this insidious national predicament. The civilized madness of the urban/suburban experience cannot be ameliorated by ORVs and Disney-fied park concessions. Our public lands require and deserve public protection or there will be utter disconnection with that which is real and true and life-affirming.
The quiet in nature is my favorite kind of quiet.
It's natural, organic quiet.
The quiet you find indoors is not True Quiet. Listen to it for a second - you'll find it has a sound of a sort. And it's kind of, well, unnerving.
Redwood trees in particular, even second growth, are very sleepy things.
Just be careful to leave-no-trace, and stick to the trail; don't cause erosion.
One thing is important is that the natural world is a living world. It is alive. This is the part: when I spent alot of time around the redwood trees, I came to understand their thoughts , it is hard to explain without sounding nutty- but- when you spend alot of time around trees you come to understand certain things. At one point they told me they were overworked. That everytime a tree is chopped down on our planet - every other tree has to work that much harder to produce the balance (of O2-CO2.)
My father was a Sierra Club member and I remember hikes as early as age 3. My son loves "nature walks" and he becomes confident and grounded when we are out on the hiking trails.
The trick is finding the places that arent sprayed(pesticides) into silence.
I spend as much time in the natural world as I can, forests, deserts, mountains, and the sea. Each time I return to the world of the human I am in culture shock and it takes me a certain amount of time to adjust. Walking into a convenience store or those gas station food mart type places is an assault on the senses, neon bright horrendous flickering lights are the first assault. Then comes the flood of fake smells and colors from all the food items, mixed with the oder of fossil fuels and exhaust. Everything is sped up to a dizzying pace, and all the hustle and bustle seems so empty, useless, pointless.
Eventually I adjust and reluctantly join in the (non)civilized community of humans, but always with a deep sense of sadness and loss. So many, many seem completely unaware of the profound gift that is our life.
Ghawar: WTF !!!
Actually for one so (aparently) twisted into an unrecognizable form, I am glad you stay in your basement.
Oh... btw: did you check to see if the soil types in your quiet subteranean redoubt produce an apreciable amount of radon gas?
Please tell me your post was a joke.
I once took a spiritual walk to a sulfur spring. I didn't know where we were going as the guide was a man of few words, I knew it was taking a long time to get there. I was to see it before it disappeared that is what I came to understand. It is one of my most vivid memories. Seeing is only the beginning, understanding and knowledge take time.
Not just being in nature but being recognized by animals as a non-threatening part of nature is a rich experience. The insights one gets from being a regular participant allows a glimpse of what life once was and could again become. Crossing the threshold to the outdoors as a welcome participant enlivens a part of you that has deep historic memory. It is a place that nurtures one's spirit and brings a happy sense of balance to one's life. It is a place of great peace.
"Of course, adults can be videophilic, too."
Guilty.
"If Americans were to experience peace and quiet for even a few minutes, then it is possible that their brains might engage - a violation of the new homegrown terrorism act."
This is true - I tried it once.
The noise outdoors is unbearable. The roar of freeways, barking, mowing, screaming alcoholics, loud mouthed Americans with television sets in their back yards - no place is peaceful any more.
I moved over a thousand miles to a different state where the houses have basements. It's quiet in my basement, and that is where I stay. You can have the outdoors; only a terrorist could enjoy herself there.
If Americans were to experience peace and quiet for even a few minutes, then it is possible that their brains might engage - a violation of the new homegrown terrorism act.
Last Child in the Woods is a good read.
My 3 daughters spend time outside most days. Our yard is full of flower and vegetable gardens, none are off-limits to them. Next to our home is a 180 acre city park/nature preserve that they go exploring in during the summer. The city mows trails, but it has a small creek running through and the kids always leave the path to play in the water.
It's how I spent my childhood, too, but not how most kids spend theirs. Friends of theirs come over and are aghast that they have to play outside when there are shows to watch on TV. Usually it takes a half hour and they are converts. The clothesline becomes a fort with sheets strung on it. Under the picnic table is someone's "home". And they make the mistake of hiding in the raspberries, only once.
We need to stop being so afraid of letting kids out of our sight.