Open Your Window. Look! There’s a World Out There!
Calling all vegetables. Stand up (slowly, so you don’t get a head rush). Now, step slowly away from your computer. Walk toward your front door, open it and keep walking. Breathe (slowly, in case your lungs aren’t used to that strange cold air).
While you’re slowly getting your sea legs, look around. Plants, birds — what the hell are those things? Back in the old days, before everyone was glued to their TVs and computers 24/7, these strange experiences were actually normal.
A study has shown that camping, hiking, fishing and visiting parks have all declined drastically. Hunting has declined more slowly than other outdoor pastimes. This report is from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors are Oliver R. W. Pergams and Patricia A. Zaradic.
The report says: “The replacement of vigorous outdoor activities by sedentary, indoor videophilia has far-reaching consequences for physical and mental health, especially in children. Videophilia has been shown to be a cause of obesity, lack of socialization, attention disorders and poor academic performance.”
And: “Declining nature participation has crucial implications for current conservation efforts. We think it probable than any major decline in the value placed on natural areas and experiences will greatly reduce the value people place on biodiversity conservation.”
This decline started during the 1980s and it’s been happening in the U.S. and Japan.
No wonder the environment isn’t a high priority. When we hear about forests being mowed down and species going extinct, more and more people will be thinking “so what’s your point?”
February 6th, 2008 at 9:42 am
tom,
thanks, very interesting. most of my observations about this topic are anecdotal. But, I spend at least one day a week in a national wildlife refuge or state park. In fact, i visit a state park almost daily since one is less than a mile from my home and my dog loves to take walks there. in addition to the issues mentioned in the article some others which seem to be affecting visits include.
1. increased entrance fees. It now costs $5 for a visit to a national park or refuge in my area. old folks visit free on a life time pass. the poor who were regular visitors in the past no longer visiting. total cost of visit is getting beyond their budget.
2. many state and national parks are using noisy machinery, leaf blower’s, chain saws, etc. in the camp grounds. nothing like enjoying a nice quite chat around a campfire when some bastard comes by blowing leaves off the pavement. where in the past i enjoyed the campgrounds i now only use primitive areas.
3. The feds and many states have attempted during the past several years to make state parks profit centers. many campgrounds co-locate tent campers and RV’s. nothing like trying to enjoy nature or go to sleep with a generator roaring 100 ft. away. i have personally been involved in some almost fist fights in this situation. tent campers are generally non intrusive, but this RV crowd with all their noise is ruining the experience. (the energy situation is quickly rendering these dinosaurs obsolete thank god. )
4. Staff cutbacks at parks over the past few years has been significant. many times i visit and there is no one to collect fees or provide information. thanks god for volunteers. i really don’t know how they collected the data on visits for this study.
Several years ago a psychological study was released somewhere by someone who identified and named a malady called Nature Deficit Disorder. Seems we all need a good dose of interaction with nature and folks who are denied an occasional fix suffer some interesting problems.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:51 am
I’m actually quite amazed that it was not obvious to everyone that there were no WMDs. When the inspection team went back into Iraq the had full run of the country. If all those intelligence agencies knew where the weapons were, why did they not tell the inspection team. It should have been a simple matter to position a satellite over the site and then notify the inspection team. Then if the there were WMDs and they were moved when the Iraqies found out there would be proof of the moving.