Human connection to nature has declined 60% in 200 years, study finds
Human connection to nature has declined 60% in 200 years, study finds
Human connection to nature has declined 60% in 200 years, study finds
People’s connection to nature has declined by more than 60% since 1800, almost exactly mirroring the disappearance of nature words such as river, moss and blossom from books, according to a study.
Computer modelling predicts that levels of nature connectedness will continue to decline unless there are far-reaching policy and societal changes – with introducing children to nature at a young age and radically greening urban environments the most effective interventions.
The study by Miles Richardson, a professor of nature connectedness at the University of Derby, accurately tracks the loss of nature from people’s lives over 220 years by using data on urbanisation, the loss of wildlife in neighbourhoods and, crucially, parents no longer passing on engagement with nature to their children.
Freaks me out that people around here are oblivious to our local ecosystem collapsing. And this is in NW Florida where it should be quite lively! I've commented a great deal on my observations, too depressing to write all that again.
Couple of neighbors were over the other day and I got on my eco soapbox, started asking them if they had observed X, Y and Z. They kept looking at each other and back to me, "Damn man. You're right, I had not noticed that."
There are far more ways of escaping reality today than there used to be not so long ago, and - unfortunately - no less of a pressing need to do so thanks to all the pressures our insatiable overlords have imposed upon us all. I fear it won't be long before reality forcibly redirects all of our attention back to it, by which time it will be too late to mitigate most of the worst possible outcomes of our inattention.