Are Americans Afraid of the Outdoors? Americans are spending less time with nature

[BurtWorm]

I blame deer ticks. :evilfrown:



http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=are-americans-afraid-of-the-outdoors&sc=PR_20080220

The electronic world is replacing the natural world for leisure time in rich nations

By David Biello




Americans have been visiting national parks and other natural reserves less and less since 1987, new research confirms. Outdoor pursuits, ranging from camping to hunting, have entered a persistent and growing decline.

"Folks are going out into nature much less and decreasingly every year," says conservation ecologist Patricia Zaradic of the Environmental Leadership Program and co-author of the report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. "It would take 80 million more visits this year to get the per capita number back up to the level it was in 1987."

Zaradic and her colleague conservation biologist Oliver Pergams of the University of Illinois at Chicago analyzed trends in visits to national parks and forests, state parks, surveys on camping and the number of licenses for activities such as hunting or fishing. All peaked between 1981 and 1991 after 50 years of steady increase and have been declining at roughly 1 percent per year since for an overall drop of as much as 25 percent.

...

The conservationists believe that the electronic world has supplanted the natural world as the leading diversion. Their statistical analysis shows that the increase in video games, movie rentals and other electronic entertainment most closely matches the decrease in camping and park visits, as opposed to income, vacation time, park overcrowding, foreign travel or other potential causes.

But Richard Louv, chairman of the Santa Fe, N.Mex.–based Children and Nature Network and author of Last Child in the Woods, ascribes the change more to increasing school and work pressure on children and parents as well as the rising cost of park visits. Plus, he says, there's the fear factor. "You didn't have the concept of stranger danger ," Louv says. "If you are raising a generation under protective house arrest, will they have a joyful experience in nature?"

....

[graywarrior]

1. Not me. I'm headed back to the northeast mountains.

Give me moose, bear, ticks and boulders, baby.

[Adsos Letter]

2. ...and bone-chilling weather that only the Puritans could love...

actually, I spent some time in New Hampshire and thought it quite beautiful...

:D

EDIT: On the advice of council I have edited to add simple boilerplate disclaimer: "no 19 year old guys were referenced in the construction of this post."

:dunce:

[graywarrior]

18. Bwahahahahahaha hah haha hahaha hahaha

BAD. Bad bad bad.
:rofl:

[BurtWorm]

3. You'll have to try to make 80 million more visits this year

for the rest of us. ;)

Actually, I love the outdoors, too. I grew up in Maine and practically lived in the woods. My daughter is a city girl, though. She loves the outdoors but doesn't get enough of a chance to be out in it, unfortunately, except for a month and half in the summer and assorted mini-oppotunities the remainder of the year.

[zalinda]

4. How can anyone find the time

We're all working our asses off trying to keep a roof over our heads.

zalinda

[DangerDave921]

6. Studies

Studies show we have a ton more leisure time than our grandparents did. We have more leisure time than anyone in the history of the world.

[DangerDave921]

5. My nephews

live virtually their whole lives indoors. It's fucking creepy, man. Video games, t.v., ipods, computer, text messages.

When i was a kid I was out there on my bike, playing catch, running around. And sneaking cigs in the cornfields and feeling up neighbor girls in the barn out back. You know, a decent all-american boyhood.

My nephews are creepy.

[HockeyMom]

7. I moved from NY to Florida

It's too damned HOT here. I try to stay indoors as much as possible.

[DangerDave921]

10. Florida is whack

I know people down there who drive 1/4 mile down the street to go to a neighbor's house. With the A/C cranked up on high. Bizarre.

How much carbon emissions are cranked out by that one state alone? You take millions of people, many of them old, and stick them in 100 degree heat with A/C cranked up. That's some serious energy usage.

[randr]

8. Hooray for nature!

The less people out in the real world the better!

[NeedleCast]

9. Maybe I'm just Lucky

but since my job allows me to travel, I find myself spending a lot more time outside. After being cooped up all day at the office doing IT shit, I can't wait to get outside, even if it's just to lay by the pool for awhile. This weekend I went up to Red Rock Country in northern AZ and did some sight-seeing around Diamondback Gultch and the Indian ruins. Fascinating stuff and such beautiful country.

[DangerDave921]

11. Dude, that sounds awesome!

Would love to get out to that part of the country. I've never been west of KC, sorry to say. Need to see me some deserts and mountains and open sky.

[devilgrrl]

12. Oh, I love the outdoors....

In fact I can't wait until "Toobing*" season starts in June.

*We enjoy inner-tubing down the river summer. :-)

[EFerrari]

13. No, it's those stupid menus that you get when you try to reserve camp spots.

THEY are the anti Christ. :grr:

[taterguy]

14. Just because some dweeb can't afford an Xbox is no reason to slam those of us that can

Why bother going outside at all when you could be doing this?

[riderinthestorm]

15. I'd also point a finger at extreme weather patterns

It's just no fun to be outside when it's 110 degrees, or when you're out camping for a week in August and it snows (and you are so unprepared for that).... I will say that I'm a farmer, I have to be outside. But at this point in the weather extremes, I'm only going outside if I'm paid.

My two nieces live in a very exclusive, western Chicago suburb, within 2 blocks of a really lovely park with swingsets, a creek, basketball hoops, a sand volleyball court, tennis courts etc. But their mother (my sister) won't let them go to the park (gasp!) alone.... :eyes: They are 14 and 12 years old and she still won't let them walk to a friends' house 3 blocks away - alone!

Needless to say they are video game freaks who spend all their free time latched onto their gameboys, playstation and movies.

The one vacation they took to a natural park for a week (rented a cabin), their older girl came down with strep throat. My sister blamed it on the lake. And they vowed to never go back. Now mind you, this is a park that my other sister and I have rented cabins on for more than 20 years, and our parents rented a cabin on the same lake when we were kids. We grew up in these woods and on this lake and nobody has ever gotten strep throat there - it was all just an excuse to stay inside for their next vacation.

[Speck Tater]

16. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Don't you realize how DANGEROUS it is to go outside? That babbling brook is full of parasites that will make you sick. Bambi carries ticks that will give you Lyme disease. Mosquitoes carry all sorts of bad illnesses. Who knows what the wild birds can give you in the way of dreadful sickness. There's bears in the woods, and mountain lions, and killer bees, and scorpions in the brush, and deadly snakes, and what ever would you do to survive if you got beyond cell phone range of civilization?

Not worth the risk. Best stay inside and turn on the TV.

:sarcasm:

[Justitia]

17. I have a special love of urban parks. Central Park, NYC & Villa Borghese (Rome) are 2 of my favs.

I love to see them filled with people.

It's hard these days to get away to the State Parks, but urban parks are like a guilty pleasure to me!

Here in Houston, I steal away to both Memorial Park & Hermann Park every chance I get.

[nam78_two]

19. K&R-that is an interesting article/nt