Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

When journalist, Richard Louv, coined the phrase, Nature Deficit Disorder in his book Last Child in the Woods, he intended it to be “tongue-in-cheek. But it struck a nerve.

04-It has entered the language since then. Actually, several languages.

Louv was the keynote speaker at the annual Children in Nature Conference in in April.

21- To show you what I know about marketing, I argued with the publisher on whether that should be in the subtitle. But as I thought about it, I thought we’re not going to have a big conversation about this issue without that kind of approach. So, it’s not a known medical diagnosis; maybe it should be. It is, though, a metaphor for what we’ve known was going on for a long time.

What was going on for a long time was estrangement of youth from the natural world.

10-The activities that kids considered important–nature was sliding on that scale very quickly, and that started about 30-35
years ago. At an accelerating pace.

Since Last Child in the Woods publication in 2005, the Children in Nature movement has grown around it.

19-If children have less and less experience with nature, who will be the future stewards of the earth. Yes, there will always be environmentalists and conservationists, but increasingly–if we’re not careful–they will be carrying nature in their briefcases and not in their hearts. And that’s a very different relationship, and I don’t think it’s sustainable.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.