The youth of America show consistent concern about the welfare of those even more youthful than they are. The youth themselves, it seems, are A-Okay. Such is the message I get from environmental science students when I present to them the evidence for Nature Deficit Disorder. The diagnosis of Nature Deficit Disorder stems from the observation that the past generation of children have been getting significantly less exposure to natural experiences than was the case for previous generations of children. In his widely read book Last Child in the Woods, journalist Richard Louv claimed that this reduction in contact with the great outdoors has had tremendous implications. Nature Deficit Disorder as Louv reported it, “describes the human cost of alienation from nature.” These costs include a diminished use of the senses, physical and emotional illnesses and a magnification of attention deficit problems. Louv’s work has has assembled the evidential support for and has now motivated a national movement to create more opportunities to bring children out of doors. This is fostered by the Children & Nature Network which Louv co-founded and by many regional initiatives such as the Chicago Wilderness Alliance's Leave no Child Indoors program. I am certainly all for it.
Richard Louv draws optimism in talking with college students about his work. These students belong, as Louv sees it, to the “first de-natured generation.” Collectively, they are experiencing many of the symptoms of the affliction that Louv has identified. When the issue of “nature’s role in health — physical, mental, and spiritual — was introduced into the conversation the tone changed…”, Louv wrote. What began as more theoretically inflected discussions about environmental problems “quickly turned personal.” Here is a problem that one can do something about and the students responded warmly.
