"Children have lost touch with the natural world and are unable to identify common animals and plants, according to a survey. ...
"The study also found that playing in the countryside was children's least popular way of spending their spare time, and that they would rather see friends or play on their computer than go for a walk or play outdoors."
Disclosure: I'm an animal lover and closet tree-hugger. I believe humankind has moved dangerously far away from connections with nature -- and this only seems to prove it.
(via The Drudge Report)
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There was a link to the test that the children took, for the reader to test their knowledge as well.
I scored 8 out of 14... I guess I need to play outside more often (in Britain)..! :)
You'll probably love the plot of "The Happening" then.
Not familiar with that one, AM -- I'll ask my guy to put it on our Netflix queue. If it has to do with nature, it's an instant hit :o)
Charles Henry, I often feel like a square peg etc., but never more than around my conservative brethren, who, every bit as much as liberals, seem not to care much for their environment except in terms of comfort or discomfort with same.
Sigh.
I find myself looking at the sky, or at a leaf blade, or at a shy animal, every chance I get -- and each time I'm filled with a kind of quickening feeling, as if each has libraries to share with me ... if that makes sense.
I really do identify with tree-huggers *smile* -- trees, like us, are individual living things, with their own personalities -- and, especially with the old-growth forest dwellers, do I feel a sense of horror at cutting them down in the service of more paper, which is transitory.
Ah, well. Our loving Creator sees them, along with the smallest sparrows, and will protect them. Still, I hate to see wanton destruction.
A couple of thoughts:
First off, I spent a few days at the family cabin in the great north woods of Montana--no cell phone service, no internet...ah, fantastic! But...the area has been built up a bit, quite a bit, lots of trees down (which actually reveals splendid mountain views from the front porch) but also my relatives whom I haven't seen in a while brought with them video games and other such trash.
My foolish, young cousins and their complicit parents spent so much time watching movies and playing video games that they could have played at home...it was quite annoying. I felt a great sense of tragedy surrounding all of it. I, on the other hand, hiked, swam, and played cards--all activities worthy of a cabin in the woods!
Regarding tree hugging, you know our lumber companies replenish the forests. I spent a lot of time driving timber roads and they do an amazing job--which is why we still have so much forest after a couple hundred years of industry and logging!
We do it right in America. We log sustainably, and so the tree hugger in me is content, as is the writer who depends, somewhat, on the paper as well!
Erik, so glad you enjoyed your time off :o)
Yes ... we do replenish trees, to the extent that we now have MORE trees than before the Revolution -- a fact extremists conveniently overlook. We're more than doing our part, carbon- and oxygen-wise.
The thing I regret is not so much logging of old forests -- although, I do see a potential short-term need -- well, perhaps I don't.
I just can't see justifying paper for a fax, or whatever, as trumping the destruction of a being that has spanned time. This being has absorbed so much -- it is part of living history. We can get paper -- if we even need it anymore -- from the farms of Weyerhauser. We needn't murder old trees simply because we don't want to use a ceramic plate for a barbecue, or because ... well, we just don't need it.
I know, I come off as ... well, a tree-hugger :)
I guess I am :)
But just ASK a liberal to embrace me as brethren! Yeah, right :)
You only REALLY care about the environment if you want to vote for Obama. Or whatever.
//sarcasm off!
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