Reconnecting children with nature took a step forward recently, when the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, gathering for a world  congress in Barcelona, passed a resolution acknowledging the importance of connecting children and nature.

The commission noted it was a priority “to assure responsible stewardship of the environment for generations to come.”

Cheryl Charles, president and CEO of the Children & Nature Network, was there. She moderated a panel discussion titled “Reversing a Worldwide Trend: Strategies for Solving Nature-Deficit Disorder.”It’s not just happening here in the U.S., land of nonstop TVs blaring and a pervasive passion for video games. Her panel included participants from India, the Netherlands, Mexico, and Hungary.

(The network website has a great video, made by a British soap company, in which a robot becomes a boy when it ventures outdoors.)

Local researcher Patricia Zaradic has been studying children and nature for several years.

You can look at some of her research at www.videophilia.org. She and associate Oliver Pergams coined the term, which basically means: doing stuff indoors in front of a screen - watching TV, sitting at computers, playing Xbox - instead of taking a hike.

Their latest research: In the last two decades, park visits, permits for camping or fishing, and other data show a fundamental, pervasive shift away from outdoor activities. Overall, participation in outdoor activities has declined 18 percent to 25 percent.

The authors say the trend has impact well beyond the nation's expanding waistline: It could blunt conservation efforts and other activities that depend on an appreciation of Mother Nature.

I wrote about their work last February. “It's striking and significant," Zaradic told me as she paused along a woodsy Haverford trail she often walks with her husband and three children. "There's this whole other body of research that indicates it's time spent in nature, especially as a child, that leads to environmental sensitivity as an adult," said Zaradic.
And not just experiences at Yellowstone. Even the small realm of bugs and earthworms and fallen leaves in the American backyard has import, Zaradic said. It's something "you just can't get from a flat screen, no matter how high-D it is. "