If You Want A Better World, Raise Better People

____________________________

As an environmentalist, I ask myself often: what can I do?  I write about ways to go green and lessen our carbon footprint. I could wax on poetically about the efforts my family make although sometime I wish I personally did more. But I came to this moment recently in which I realized that nothing I do, as a single person, will ever really be enough. Planting a tree, or even a forest, is a short-term solution to a long term problem of cultural negligence. The forest may grow but history will repeat itself if habits aren’t changed. Protecting our world requires a two-fold response: leaving it a better place and creating better people to live in it. 

                                           

____________________________

A little story. I heard a man on the radio once was talking about being at a park and seeing a boy throw some trash on the ground. He thought the boy’s father would continue to walk along but watched as he stopped, turned to his son and told him to go throw the trash away. The son obediently did so, after which the father said: “Good, now go pick up 20 more pieces of trash.” It’s important to make that extra step, to encourage children to be mindful of their world.

In Louv’s book The Last Child in the Woods, he talks about the disconnect children have with nature. Instead of climbing trees today’s youth are glued to their iPads and the outdoors have become a bit of a foreign domain. It is this very estrangement that we need to fix. How are they to learn how important it is to protect the Earth if they have no relationship with her?  As parents we have to make nourishing this bond a priority. Louv coined the phrase nature deficit disorder, an apt description for the children who’s lives are dominated by the computer screen.

“If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.” 

– Maria Montessori

Getting kids connected to the natural world isn’t some monolithic task. As Louv said himself, you don’t have to go to Yosemite, a back yard will suffice. Dirt isn’t scary so let your kid explore. Go fishing, go hiking, go for a walk around the block. 

For more information on how to get your children involved with the outdoors, I recommend checking out the National Wildlife Federation’s page. The NWF’s Be Out There project has such a wealth of information for families.