Me, I’ve always made nature a priority. I don’t know any other way. It’s my oxygen, my religion. My wife, Janice, isn’t too far off. Our first date was a hike and our firstborn son is named after the trail we took that fateful day. Our boys, aged 3 and 5, are growing up in [...]
Boredom has its benefits. So does solitude, that lost art in the age of wall-to-wall media. To occasionally be alone – not lonely, but alone – is an important part of parenting and of marriage. One time, my wife Kathy rented a room at the beach, and spent a weekend with no electronic interruptions, no [...]
Many people believe that technology is the antithesis of nature. Here’s an alternate view. A fishing rod is technology. So is that fancy backpack. Or a compass. Or a tent. When boomers my age ran through the woods with play guns (as distasteful as that might be to some people), they were using technology as [...]
One of the admirable characteristics of modern Australia – one that the U.S. should emulate – is a relatively new custom. As I learned on a recent visit to four cities, at the opening of most major conferences indigenous people are asked to give an invocation; and the first person to speak offers a [...]
“We gain life by looking at life.” Those are the words of Dr. Mardie Townsend, a researcher and associate professor in the School of Health and Social Development at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, and an important thinker about the importance of the natural world to human development. She added, in an interview with the [...]
Dear Mr. Cameron,
A few weeks ago, I read a terrific quote from you that ran in at least two newspapers, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Hindu.
” What is ‘Avatar’ saying,” the interviewer asked you.
You answered: ” It asks questions about our relationship with each other, from culture to culture, and our relationship with the natural world at a time of nature-deficit disorder.”
A billion or so dollars later, ” Avatar” is the king of the film world. Not everyone likes its political message. But from Connecticut to Kansas to California, and probably around the world, people are starved for the movie’s larger message: humans pay an awful price and take a terrible toll when they lose touch with the natural world.
Remember the special place in nature that you had as a child — that wooded lot at the end of the cul de sac, that ravine behind your housing tract? What if adults had cared just as much about that special place as you did, when you were a child?
In the spirit of the Do it Yourself, Do it Now philosophy of the Children & Nature Network, here’s an idea whose time may be coming: the creation of ” nearby-nature trusts.” Land trust organizations could develop and distribute tool kits, and perhaps offer consulting services, to show how neighborhood residents could band together to protect those small green parcels of nearby nature. What might these little parcels be called? How about ” button parks?”
A version of this commentary first appeared in The San Diego Union-Tribune on Feb. 24, 2009
Is nature obsolete? This year, the publisher of the Oxford Junior Dictionary decided to replace dozens of nature-related words, such as ” beaver” and ” dandelion,” with ” blog” and ” MP3 player.” Children just aren’t [...]
Make a Difference: 9/11 Day of Outdoor Service
Every day is filled with a chance to make a difference, today even more so with the ability to communicate in seconds through a virtual world. We can transfer money to a cause, virtually sign a petition, and spread the word to hundreds of people in our personal networks. Yet, at the end of the [...]