Rediscovering benefits of great outdoors
Can you really blame kids for being reluctant to go outdoors? We terrify them with stories about West Nile virus lurking within every mosquito, birds carrying fatal flu and killer hurricanes, tsunamis and tornadoes.
Nature can be messy, scary, sometimes hard work to enjoy and decidedly dog-eat-dog. Not especially appealing to overweight, out-of-shape kids raised to believe every risk can be eradicated by a new rule and that life is fair. Nothing disabuses one of those notions quicker than nature does.
Environmental groups hoping to pull kids from their more predictable iPods, video games and instant messaging into the sunshine and fresh air of the outdoors thus have a tall hill to climb, even despite using the lure of fun and games. It is, however, a hill worth attempting.
Not only are the health benefits of exercise, fresh air and stress reduction obvious, but so, too, are the mental health benefits. Nature lovers know a special sort of contentment -- a contentment that comes from understanding the natural world around them, knowing their place in it, and knowing that those lethal storms have a place in it, too.
Beyond the personal, short-term benefits, however, an understanding of the natural world that supports human life is absolutely required for humans to be good stewards of that which sustains them.
Do kids today understand basic natural truths that once were learned in the pursuit of day-to-day life? That too much of the same crop (corn for ethanol, for example) planted over and over on the same ground will drain it of nutrients and cause another Dust Bowl? Or that the algae choking ponds and lakes largely comes from the fertilizer heaped on their lawn? That the power to recharge all those toys is not automatic or on-demand?
They should. Just as they should understand the joys of a nighttime walk through fireflies. The pure amazement of a star-filled sky. Or the soothing symphony of a stream splashing over rocks or waves breaking upon a shore.
To that end, a $20 million nationwide effort to introduce kids to the great outdoors is not only a healthy endeavor, but an essential one.
"If we don't get our kids engaged now about nature, then we can do all the conservation work we want; ... in 20 or 30 years, it will be for nothing," said Michelle Uting of the Chicago Wilderness Consortium.
As usual, parents need to be part of the solution. The National Wildlife Federation suggests a "green hour" to counter the hours spent in front of a screen. A walk. A bike ride. A bug-finding trip to the flower bed. A study of backyard birds or squirrels. It helps if Mom and Dad participate, but it's not necessary.
What's necessary is taking the time to get you and yours out of the house and out of the car.
"You have to slow down, and I think that's part of the challenge," said Mary Rice, director of Schaumburg's Spring Valley Nature Center.
If we don't, and if we don't help our kids develop a healthy and knowledgeable relationship with their natural world, it is their future that will suffer most.