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The New Nature Movement

Field Notes from the Future: Tracking the Movement to Connect People and Nature

Last Child in the Woods & The Nature Principle

"Last Child in the Woods" introduces the concept of nature-deficit disorder, offering practical actions for families and communities. "The Nature Principle" extends the issue to adults and reports the restorative power of the natural world.

Columns by Richard Louv

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By Richard Louv on February 22nd, 2012

Ten Ways Camps Can Reduce Nature-Deficit Disorder and Build Support for Their Programs

Adapted from keynote address, American Camp Association National Conference, Feb. 22, 2012 When I was a teenager, I resented camp. Because I never went to camp. Every summer, my buddy Pete would disappear for weeks. He’d leave Kansas and head to Sanborn Western Camp in the mountains west of Colorado Springs. For me, the hot, [...]

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By Richard Louv on February 13th, 2012

SKY BLINDNESS & STARLIGHT

A few years ago, Madhu Narayan, a Girl Scout leader in San Diego told me this story: ”In my first counseling job, with another organization, I took children with AIDS to the mountains who had never been out of their urban neighborhoods. “One night, a nine-year-old woke me up. She had to go to the bathroom. [...]

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By Richard Louv on January 26th, 2012

EVERY CHILD NEEDS NATURE: 12 Questions About Equity & Capacity

Every child needs nature. Not just the ones with parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child. If a child never sees the stars, never has meaningful encounters with other species, never experiences the richness of nature, what happens to that child? In [...]

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By Richard Louv on January 24th, 2012

The Age of Emptiness or the Coming Creativity?

One day, while driving down a freeway, I looked up to see an empty sky where there had been mountaintops. Dust was rising as massive earth graders rumbled across a now-blank plain. Seemingly overnight, they had sliced away the horizon. Later came rows of mini-mansions devoid of color or individuality or visual meaning, and shopping malls, [...]

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By Richard Louv on January 14th, 2012

And Now a Few Words About the Children & Nature Network

After “Last Child in the Woods” was published in 2005, a handful of like-minded individuals came together to form the Children & Nature Network. Our mission: to help build a movement to reconnect children, their families and their communities to nature—for human health and well-being, cognitive development, stronger community — and for the good of the planet. For [...]

Columns by Richard Louv • Featured Columns

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By Richard Louv on December 28th, 2011

The Forgotten Human Right

“Nothing so important as an ethic is ever ‘written’… it evolves in the minds of a thinking community.” — Aldo Leopold. Do children – do all of us – have a right to meaningful connection to the natural world? Annelies Henstra, a Dutch human rights attorney, thinks so. She calls it the “forgotten human right.” In [...]

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By Richard Louv on December 19th, 2011

HOLIDAY LOVE LETTERS: A Gift That Can Include Nature & More, for the New Year, Too

It’s the season — that time of year when, whatever our religious beliefs, we often think most directly about family ties. We’ve made the case at C&NN that nature experiences can tighten family bonds, most recently in our guide for families, “Together in Nature” (please also see Marti Erickson’s C&NN paper on family bonding and [...]

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By Richard Louv on November 24th, 2011

A MOVEMENT MOVES: 15 Signs of Progress for C&NN & the Movement

“A movement moves.” — Rev. Gerald L. Durley All of us involved with the Children & Nature Network recognize the challenges ahead, the miles to go, the promises and deadlines to keep. But for the children and nature movement, 2011 has been a banner year. Here are a few of the achievements accomplished during the [...]

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By Richard Louv on November 11th, 2011

TRUE GREEN: 21 WAYS TO PLANT A CITY

During the first week of November, members of the American Society of Landscape Architects and their colleagues from around the country – over 5,000 strong – met at the San Diego Convention Center. Saving the world was somewhere on the agenda. Could they be the group with the most influence on human habitat in the future, [...]

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By Richard Louv on November 5th, 2011

THE RESTORATIVE CITY: A NEW WAY TO ENVISION THE FUTURE

“Nature is not a place to visit, it is home.” —Gary Snyder. A few months ago, at the Minnesota Arboretum, several hundred people from a variety of sectors – tourism, housing development, health care, education, and others – came together for a conference focused in part on the Nature Principle. I was especially intrigued by [...]

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By Richard Louv on September 30th, 2011

SAVING THE FIELDS OF DREAMS: Building ‘Natural Cultural Capacity’ to Enrich Our Parks and Cities

Despite some signs of progress, the impact of recession on public access to the natural world is a reality, and it could get worse. Take California, for instance. In coming months, as many as 70 parks, many of them in or near urban areas will close, according to California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman. This, she [...]

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By Richard Louv on September 24th, 2011

NATURE’S OWN STIMULUS PACKAGE: 7 Ways to Improve Our Lives in Tough Economic Times

For many stressed-out families, spending more time in the natural world — a nature stimulus package — may be just what the doctor and the economist ordered. Here are a few of the benefits, updated from an earlier post: 1. With high gas prices, families are rediscovering both the joy and the cost-effectiveness of getaways [...]

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By Richard Louv on September 7th, 2011

APOCALYPSE NO: Something large and hopeful is forming out there. You’re already creating it.

Why is the future so often portrayed as a post-apocalyptic dystopia, filled with human brutality and stripped of nature? For decades, our culture has struggled with two addictions: to oil and to despair. But what if our lives were as immersed in nature as they are in technology every day? What if we not only conserved nature, but created [...]

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By Richard Louv on September 7th, 2011

THE MORE HIGH-TECH SCHOOLS BECOME, THE MORE THEY NEED NATURE

Want Your Kids to Get Into Harvard? Tell ‘em To Go Outside. I once met an instructor who trains young people to become the pilots of cruise ships. He described the two kinds of students he encounters. One kind grew up mainly indoors, spending hours playing video games and working on computers. These students are [...]

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By Richard Louv on August 25th, 2011

WANT YOUR KIDS TO GET INTO HARVARD? TELL ‘EM TO GO OUTSIDE!

First of two in a series September is back-to-school month, and the chanting begins: Drill, test, lengthen the school day, skip recess, cancel field trips, and by all means discourage free time for (gasp!) self-directed play. Is that approach working, particularly in science learning? Not so well. A few months ago, I met with a [...]

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