David Suzuki, the dean of Canadian
environmentalism, was joined last Thursday by U.S. journalist Richard
Louv, author of the bestselling book,
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, for a public conversation at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
David Suzuki
As these two environmental pioneers
parleyed, it became clear that an environmental agenda centering chiefly
on conservation, government policy and an urgent, doom-laden,
sword-of-Damocles advocacy was quietly morphing into one focused on
relationships, children, education, wonder, joy and the healing power of
nature.
In both our private interview and the
public colloquy, Suzuki and Louv reflected on the milestones and
missteps of the environmental movement, which, as Suzuki notes, is this
year celebrating its 50th anniversary, having been spawned by Rachel
Carson’s watershed 1962 publication
Silent Spring, which sounded the alarm on the pernicious proliferation of pesticides.
While Suzuki noted that the first 30
years of the movement saw many successes, with DDT banned, clean air and
water legislation passed, critical wildlands preserved and a global
awareness raised about eco-concerns, he also noted that certain proposed
pipelines and dams, defeated decades ago, are again back on the table.
“When we started the Suzuki
Foundation in 1990,” Suzuki recalled, “we thought we had only 10 years.”
Influenced by data provided by the
Worldwatch Institute,
which publishes a much-cited annual State of the World report, Suzuki
rebuffed suggestions that the foundation focus on schools, deeming there
was “no time” given the grave and imminent threats to our ecosystems.
He now calls his decision quite candidly a “fundamental error.”
Louv echoed Suzuki’s sentiment,
recounting a recent meeting with a group of U.S. university students,
all focusing on environmental studies, but none connecting with any
mainline environmental organizations. One factor was age — the average
member’s age of the
Nature Conservancy
is 68 — but a second reason was articulated poignantly by one of the
students. “I’m 20 years old. All my life I have heard we’re finished.
The planet is doomed.” Such eco-nihilism is rarely an effective
recruitment tool.
Happily, Louv’s work is decidedly non-apocalyptic.
Last Child in the Woods helped inspire a growing movement reconnecting children with nature.
Richard Louv
Harvesting clinical research showing
that children suffering from attention-deficit disorder, depression and
suicidal tendencies are often greatly helped by exposure to nature, Louv
co-founded the
Children & Nature Network, whose vision is to foster “a world in which all children play, learn and grow with nature in their everyday lives.”
In 2010, Louv was invited to address
5,000 pediatricians at the American Academy of Pediatrics annual
meeting. They not only warmly received his words, but in some cases have
begun to give “nature prescriptions” to children, recommending taking
in nature rather than just taking pills to get well. In Portland, Ore.,
Louv reports, an urban park has become a veritable wellness centre for
children, with park staff seeing themselves as “para-health
professionals.” Adopting a “climb two maples and call me in the morning”
approach, park staff sign off on doctors’ health prescriptions after
children have taken their recommended dose of nature.
His most recent book,
The Nature Principle,
is a cogent plea for a newly imagined future — one that eschews
obsession with ecological armageddon and instead focuses on the
restorative powers of the planet.
Citing Martin Luther King, Louv
states, “Any cultural movement will fail if it can’t paint a picture of a
world where people want to go to.” Louv is gravely concerned about the
rash of popular, post-apocalyptic cultural images of the future. If,
when we think of the future, we only envision some “
Blade Runner-
Mad Max-
Hunger Games
scenario,” Louv comments, “we are in real trouble.” Such a
post-apocalyptic framing of the future, he fears, is almost as great a
threat as climate change.
As these seasoned environmental
leaders are seeing, their movement is not ultimately a protest movement
against government and corporate policies, but primarily a movement that
strives to embrace with joy the sanguine mystery and beauty of life.
Stephen Bede Scharper teaches at the Centre for Environment, University of Toronto, and is author of the forthcoming book, For Earth’s Sake: Toward a Compassionate Ecology (Novalis).
