Richard Louv
Richard Louv
Richard Louvis an American nonfiction author and journalist. He is best known for his seventh book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, which investigates the relationship of children and the natural world in current and historical contexts. Louv created the term “nature-deficit disorder” to describe possible negative consequences to individual health and the social fabric as children move indoors and away from physical contact with the natural world – particularly unstructured, solitary experience. Louv cites...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
CountryUnited States of America
Nature has been taken over by thugs who care absolutely nothing about it. We need to take nature back.
The pleasure of being alive is brought into sharper focus when you need to pay attention to staying alive.
Now, more than ever, we need nature as a balancing agent.
As one scientist puts it, we can now assume that just as children need good nutrition and adequate sleep, they may very well need contact with nature.
In our bones we need the natural curves of hills, the scent of chaparral, the whisper of pines, the possibility of wildness.
The future will belong to the nature-smart...Th e more high-tech we become, the more nature we need.
As the young spend less of their lives in natural surroundings, their senses narrow, physiologically and psychologically and this reduces the richness of human experience we need contact with nature.
Stress reduction, greater physical health, a deeper sense of spirit, more creativity, a sense of play, even a safer life-these are the rewards that await a family then it invites more nature into children's lives.
To take nature and natural play away from children may be tantamount to withholding oxygen.
We can conserve energy and tread more lightly on the Earth while we expand our culture's capacity for joy.
Children need nature for the healthy development of their senses, and therefore, for learning and creativity.
Each of us-adult or child-must earn nature's gift by knowing nature directly, however difficult it may be to glean that knowledge in an urban environment.
There is another possibility: not the end of nature, but the rebirth of wonder and even joy.
Now, my tree-climbing days long behind me, I often think about the lasting value of those early, deliciously idle days. I have come to appreciate the long view afforded by those treetops. The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.