Mother Nature’s Lost Children Recall the way the sunlight hit your face, the grass tickled your

In his book, The Nature Principle, Richard Louv talks about how nature is a natural resource to many of the problems we as humans are facing today, if we would just go outside and take advantage of it. Louv talks about how we (as American’s) have increased our use of technology vastly in the last ten years. While this is not comply bad, it does have negative effects on our physical, emotional and spiritual being if not kept in check. Louv goes on to share that, “the more high tech we become, the more nature we need” (Louv, 2011). Think about a time you have sat in your office for hours on end, working on your computer, at last lunch time came and you went outside for just five minutes because you forgot something in your car. In just those few minutes of going outside, you might have noticed a slight increase in your happiness level. Can you then venture to understand how this could be applied to children, or even increased with taking more time to enjoy nature? Richard Louv challenges his readers to not only be in nature, but to live with nature (Louv, 2011) .

As a child, I unraveled nature’s beauty and existence. Each new experience brought me feelings of excitement and joy, sparkling my imagination and igniting my curiosity. It all seemed so large back then. Oceans appeared endless as they reached towards the horizon. Treetops seemed to make friends with the puffy-looking clouds as they soared to the sky. Over the years however, as I have grown older and life has become more complex, I am beginning to think less and less about the natural world around me. I glimpse sunset stuck in rush-hour traffic trying to return school after debate practices and only listen to the pitter-patter of the rain when there’s a storm outside. Forests and oceans seemed less appealing as they became intertwined with the urban development. In a way, I was becoming more and more distanced from the so-called nature. So, with an overwhelming desire for adventure and to escape the masses, my family and I drove to Big Bend National Park in Southwest Texas last summer.

Irma, Harvey, Mexico City earthquake, the 2011 tsunami in japan, Haiti earthquake; nature time and time again smites us with its relentless and unmatched force. Though out the years mankind has battled for survival against the brutal conditions nature has thrown at them and they have created themselves. Continually, without hesitation, they have risen from these disasters to build and grow a new. Yet still, mankind seems to bath in its own naivety at the truth of what nature really is for them. Without haste they push against nature and forget all it has done for them. This idea of respect, however is not so easily forgotten by all. Many writers and poets tell beautiful stories and tales of the power and care of mother nature’s hand extends. One such poem, “The earth is a living thing”, by Lucille Clifton, brilliantly adds to such ideas. The idea that nature poses not only strength but the smarts and heart right along with it. A concept that is not readily shared by many essay writers. Despite these other writers, John Muir follows suit with Clifton in, “A Wind-Storm in the Forest”. Where Muir bashes his reader with the harsh reality of winter, followed by an explanation of the gentle caring hand nature extends to us all. Mother nature has the power to shelter and protect, nurture and grow, but also has the power to demolish and take away everything

“The most practical and the most feasible solution offered, and the one on which this paper will center, involves the schoolyard. The schoolyard habitat movement, which promotes the “greening” of school grounds, is quickly gaining international recognition and legitimacy.” This quote touches on the fact that currently our schools need to “greened” meaning nature needs to be implemented not on the sidelines of fields but rather right in the center for kids to explore. There are many studied showing how children’s connection with nature at a young age helps them have a strong connection with nature along with having better health and lesser chances of depression. There are many organizations such as the National Wildlife Federation, Council for Environmental Education, American Forest Foundation, Britain-based Learning through Landscapes, Canadian-based Evergreen, and Swedish-based Skolans Uterum, that have all expresses interest in helping out with this cause. A theory that is very interesting that relates to this issue is a theory by Edward Wilson from Harvard. He had a theory that he named biophilia. Basically what this theory was about was that all people are simply drawn to nature by their very instinct. This quote has a lot of truth to it. Almost all

In his 2008 novel, Last Child in the Woods, journalist and natural idealist Richard Louv demonstrates the effect that separation from nature has on children. Using a variety of rhetorical strategies, Louv reminds the different parents, as agree cohort which adapted alongside new technology, of the benefits they received from nature prior to the technological revolution. Louv persuades them to instill an appreciation of the natural world in their children, even if such appreciation deviates from societal norms.

The outdoors is hidden to many people around the world. All many see is the huge skyscrapers and whitewash walls of the cities. These people don’t tend to be as happy because there isn’t a stress reliever, or a place to get away to. They need this place so that they can have some time to just relax, learn, and develop true happiness. The outdoors is an escape for those who know it and are available to experience it on a regular basis. These places can be the Great Redwood Forests and Lake Almanor in California, to Canada’s vast river and lake systems, to the fields of Kansas, and the mountains of New Zealand. All of these places have one thing in common, the freedom to live. So many city dwellers don’t get to experience these things, which rural people hold to so dearly. The constant hustle and bustle of the city tends to keep people from their happiness. The stress of city life has a way to go “out the window” when you spend time outside with yourself and nature. The ones who can experience the life in the

Journalist Richard Louv, in this excerpt from Last Child in the Woods, discusses the growing rift between children and the observation of nature, partly due to fewer children watching the outside world from the car window. Louv argues that presently, children are missing out on the “understanding of how cities and nature fit together,” due to backseat entertainment such as built in TV’s and video games. Dispersed throughout this passage, Louv uses specific anecdotes to establish ethical credibility, as well as rhetorical questions to further his main claim–children and nature are becoming increasingly more separate.

Throughout today’s society there are several different cultural perspectives which form theoretical and practical understandings of natural environments, creating various human-nature relationship types. In this essay, I will describe and evaluate different ways of knowing nature and the impact of these views on human-nature relationships. From this, I will then explore my own human-nature relationship and reflect on how my personal experiences, beliefs and values has led me to this view, whilst highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each and reflecting upon Martin’s (1996) continuum.

Nature presents itself around us every day, sprouting between the sidewalk and the street, potted on a porch or controlled and planned out in sectioned off lots often accompanied by a playground. Living in the city, we are not often presented with the unpredictable qualities of wild nature, an environment that is more likely to make the average person feel like an explorer of uncharted territory than a trip to the neighborhood park would ever make us feel.

The beautiful blossoms that bloom in Californian spring, the summer daisies alongside the cooling lake, long after the summer the trees have lost their leaves entering autumn to fresh white snow out in the mountains. Nature is able to show us its true beauty without any falseness and modifications. After all, is it not ironic how people go to museums to look at paintings of colorful flowers, green hills, and clear water streams; those are beauties that can easily be observed in real life outside of the urban environment which are surrounded by them, or how people buy recordings of the calming sounds of nature, similar to what you would listen to at night in the woods or smell nature aromas of the candles. What we are doing is trying to mislead our minds and pretend to think that we are in the woods but are instead cornered inside our small, well-furnished, and full -with-technology apartment.

Even if you don’t have a condition, animals are still a great way to stay healthy. The National Center for Health Research quoted that companion animals may improve heart health by lowering

“The Criminalization of Natural Play” is an explanation on how children now of days don’t want to do anything that does not involve technology. Yet how are kids supposed to play in nature if adults are scared of what nature contains. Kid’s childhood is slipping from their hands. You may ask yourself, how are kids losing their childhood? Henry David Thoreau serves a good example on children today.

2. Chief Purpose: To encourage researchers, psychologists, and therapist to utilize information within the article to promote involvement with nature upon the human population. To help the human race to develop an eco-friendly environment.

Scientists believe that a pleasant environment can relieve mental stress. However, there is a poor understanding of how the environment affects human health, due to lack of conclusive study in this field. The relationship between people and their environment is known as topophilia. Ogunseitan pinpoints the main characteristics of restorative landscapes in a representative population, according to the four categories connected to topophilia: synesthetic tendency (the combination of sensory stimuli and memory of a place), environmental familiarity, cognitive challenge, and ecodiversity. In Ogunseitan’s study, he assessed stressed humans using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) quality of life survey (WHOQOL-Bref). Quality of life (QOL) can be defined as someone’s satisfaction of their life, factoring in their culture, values, standards, goals, and expectations. This 26-question WHOQOL-Bref survey shows reliability across the four domains of health: physical health, psychological well-being, social relationships, and environmental support. In his study, Ogunseitan hypothesized that those with a high QOL have a higher probability paying attention to their environment, and that the preference for ecodiversity corresponds to high QOL. Ogunseitan used WHOQOL-Bref surveys that asked people about their preference for flowers, water bodies, etc. The results highlight specific characteristics of environments and landscapes that have a higher probability of increasing QOL and

The psychological effect of green parks is generally regarded as having overall health benefits on an individual. Mounting body of research indicates that mere contact with the natural environment enhances bodily and psychological health. One such study conducted by Marron on surgical patients in hospital facilities confirmed their quick recovery (2013). The research, taking a span of ten years, involved putting stand of trees in some of the rooms, while other rooms had beige brick walls with no trees. The findings showed that patients who were subjected to trees and an open view to a green space outside the widows spent less period in the hospitals, had less need for the pain killers and wrote less negative feedback to their nurses compared patient in the brick wall rooms (Marron, 2013). This study highlights the significance of the natural