Are Environmentalists Sending the Wrong Message and Actually Keeping People Indoors?

With all the talk of the poisoning of nature, are Environmentalists sending the wrong message to the very people that they are trying to get outdoors?

“I like to play indoors better ’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.”  -A FOURTH-GRADER IN SAN DIEGO

It’s hard for the casual observer to figure out what to do. I’ll be the first to admit that environmentalists send mixed messages.

On the one hand, we tell you what is wrong with the planet and how polluted and nasty it is. We talk about Oil Spills and Water Pollution. We talk about how the air isn’t safe to breath and how 40% of global deaths are attributed to pollution. We talk about melting polar ice caps and how New York City and London may be underwater in a hundred years.

Then, we tell you how to change your lives so that you make less of an impact. We tell you what you are doing wrong and how to do it right.

When we get done telling you how terrible things are, what your doing wrong, and what you can do to make them right, we completely turn the corner and tell you how wonderful the world is. In fact, spend more time in the poisoned world we are always talking about, because it’s only through the appreciation of nature that we can realize our intrinsic link with it!

What’s up with that? One minute I’m telling you about 6 legged duel sexed toads living in creeks, caused by birth control pills flushed down the toilet, and the next, I’m telling you about how important it is for children to play outdoors and explore those same creeks? I must be nuts, right? Perhaps I am. Please allow me to explain.

Our parents told us stories of uninterrupted outdoor play and some of us may be old enough to remember those times. Innocent times of not being scared of going into the woods alone. Times when going “outside” meant finding that special quiet place deep in the trees where we created our own space. I had such a place. It was where I would take my problems and while laying on my back and listening to the birds, would offer them up to nature to be cleansed. The sound of the wind through the branches and the sunlight filtering through the trees onto my small face, helped dilute those feelings of childhood expectations and anxieties. The wonder of a turtle laying eggs or a bullfrog hidden in a stream made “inside” a place where I didn’t want to be.

If I got hungry, I went home for a sandwich, which was offered to me through the screen door. I regretted the sound of the whistle that my Mother would blow, telling me it was time to come home.

But today’s children can tell you about the Amazon and how important it is to recycle, but cant tell you the last time they stepped off the pavement and into the dirt. They can play “Wii Fit” in the living room, but have never played a night time game of “capture the flag” or “kick the can” with the neighborhood kids. They own an MP3 player but have never rolled in forest Moss. They know what “Data” is, but have never blown a Dandelion.

Kids today don’t knock on a neighbors door and ask “Can Billy come out and play?” Instead, we make arrangements. We handle logistics. We make phone calls. We schedule “Play dates.”

Why is this? There are many reasons, but one of them is that we see the world as hostile. “Don’t let your children out of your sight” has become the watchword. When we do allow them out, we make sure that they stay in the yard, but only after slathering them with sunscreen and telling them not to get dirty.

So this is the crux of the Environmentalist.

But how can we tell you (or try to tell you) whats wrong with the environment, how to fix it and how to enjoy it? How do we get the message across? How do we show the beautiful and the ugly without alienating the very people who themselves, care and want to make change? Have we been going about it the wrong way?

There are hard core, doom and gloom environmental sites and there are shiny, fuzzy, light green sites. But if you are living your busy life the best that you can, how can you be expected to know where these sites are ande which “News” to trust? It’s like Fox and CNN, somewhere in the middle, you know there is truth.

What we try to do is offer you a mix of “Good News”, “Mixed News”,  and “The Great Outdoors.” Were a little bit weird like that. We throw in straight news, straight news with opinion and pure opinion.

They say that a successful website is one that is built on a niche audience, but we don’t believe it. We hope that by tempering the knowledge that our world is in trouble, with the knowledge that it’s still a beautiful place, you’ll be empowered to make decisions based on your own level of lifestyle and motivations to make change.

If your not comfortable letting your kids run loose in the woods, creeks and streams by themselves, so that they can explore, learn and develop a relationship with nature, that’s fine. It really is. (It’s really hard writing those last words.) But please understand that you can do more. You can introduce them to nature yourself.

When was the last time you went to the woods, the desert or the mountains? When was the last time you rolled in the leaves either by yourself, with your partner or with your children? Have you felt the moss lately?

We look to the members of our family’s to show the world to us. Allow yourself the joy of discovery. Allow your children that same joy.  You wont regret losing the TV time. I promise.

photo credit: re_

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