Destroying Earth, Earth Destroying Us
As we alienate ourselves from the natural world, we unknowingly inflict severe consequences detrimental to the environment and as well as ourselves. Richard Louv warns his audience children are slowly but increasingly becoming estranged from the outside and that this is causing a lack of understanding an appreciation of nature: this demonstrates his concept of Nature Deficit Disorder.
I wholeheartedly agree and disagree with Louv’s concept of Nature Deficit Disorder. In Last Child in the Woods, Louv interviews children and parents about their thoughts and opinions and spending time outdoors. Some of their answers were unfortunately expected: they do not spend as much outdoors as they do indoors do to time, preference, and or technology. However, some responses were encouraging: a select few children said that they enjoyed being outside, but that seemed to be the minority opinion which exemplifies Louv’s point.
Because individuals are spending less and less time outdoors, people are not realizing the beauty of nature and its deterioration. Throughout the novel, Louv tries to encourage his readers to spend more time outside and embrace what is out there. When we do not notice what is around us, it can negatively affect our health, psychologically speaking.
Being apart of Generation Z has differentiated my childhood from older generations in terms of technological advances. As I look back, I really did not spend that much time outdoors because I was too busy playing games on my iPhone. When I was a kid, I seldom went to the park, rarely went to the backyard, and I went on “glamping” trips that included much technology use. Even the summer camps I participated was mostly inside, where we sometimes ironically learned about the environment. Although I did not participate in many outdoor activities as a kid, there are a few that do which is why I also disagree with Louv’s Nature Deficit Disorder concept.
There are some exceptions to this disorder. In the novel, the consensus among children was that they would rather spend time indoors playing on their devices. But, Louv was able to find a small number of children who actively spent time outside and enjoyed the time doing so. Louv mentioned in the Gifts of Nature chapter a girl that was very passionate about nature, “It’s so peaceful out there and the air smells so good. I mean, it’s polluted, but not as much as the city air. For me, it’s completely different there… it’s like you’re free when you go out there. It’s your own time. Sometimes I go there when I’m mad — and then, just the peacefulness, I’m better. I can come back home happy, and my mom doesn’t even know why.” (pg. 4). From the passion in her voice, the girl was an exception to the disorder.
Louv also discusses about how there is much research being done about the environment and human body. He argues that this will push children away from nature with the electronic device appeal and the progressive advances in technology. However, Louv wrote, “My hope is that such research will cause children to be more inclined to cultivate a deeper understanding of their fellow creatures.” (pg. 5) meaning technology has the potential to encourage children to explore environmental science and the nature surrounding them.
Having much technology nowadays and the obsessive need for better and new technology is both a blessing and a curse; technology distracts children from real human interaction and the natural world, but technology also has the potential to encourage curiosity of stem subjects and open people’s minds to new and exciting research that can help and reduce climate-related disasters.
I conducted some personal research in regards to psychology and climate change because I wanted to understand why there are so many people out there who deny climate change, similar to the Tobacco Strategy we read in class. Climate change has been a controversial one due to two factors I have gathered: business corporations and religion. Corporations have had a long history of rejecting climate change, similar to the tobacco industry denying health hazards, due to profits. Many manufactures are not environmentally conscious but that does not matter as long as they are raking in profit. An example of a corporation displaying this behavior is ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil acknowledged that they knew the consequences of climate change, and did not try to fix anything about their methods or processes. Religion, especially Christianity, is extremely prevalent in this issue. To summarize religion, people’s thought process was that God would never inflict such pain and global disaster on his followers.
As mentioned previously, Louv argues that children are spending less time outdoors. This leads to a lack of awareness of our environment and our planet, which ultimately leads to the Earth’s decline. When we are not aware on an issue, perhaps we become ignorant and might deny it so we are not to be blamed. As global disasters are on the rise, we can see the psychological effects it is starting to have on individuals.
When we think of climate change, we do not always consider the psychological effects it has. An article written by Kristen Weir reports, “Some people are at higher risk for mental health consequences from weather-related disasters. Among them are children, pregnant and postpartum women, people with pre-existing mental illness, people who are economically disadvantaged, those who are homeless and first responders to the disaster.” (Weir, 2016) it is important to realize that people are losing their homes and loved ones, which is emotionally traumatizing.
Another article suggest that even if people are not harmed “Climate change affects people in many ways. Direct impacts can hit hard. Extreme weather and sea-level rise can destroy homes and property. People can suffer physical harm from extreme events as well. Even if someone doesn’t have these losses, they may worry about what could happen in the future. Depression, anxiety, post-trauma stress, sleep disorders and other problems can result.” (Kowalski, 2019). The potential harms of climate change and what is to come can make individuals extremely anxious about their future and cause severe stress.
Louv’s concept of Nature Deficit Disorder essentially holds true when it comes to the decline of children spending quality time outdoors. There are exceptions to this concept, as there are some children who do enjoy spending time in nature. A reason for the lack of climate change action may have to do with the fact that people are not going outside and seeing the issues that are there.
When people do not go outside and are solely focusing on their tablets and other various devices, they are not noticing what is happening to the world around them. This has severe consequences when it comes to the individuals suffering from climate change. As we have previously seen, climate change negatively affects one’s mental state through the potential loss of homes, family, friends, et cetera. Anxieties such as these can take a toll on an individual and lead to stress and other health problems.
To recap, it is important to acknowledge that there are two important sociological reasons why climate change is psychologically affecting individuals: Nature Deficit Disorder and denialism. Nature Deficit Disorder causes individuals to become unaware of their surroundings and become less productive when it comes to adventuring outside of their technology comfort. When we deny climate change, we are essentially denying the pain and stress survivors of climate change are going through. Serious course of action is needed and necessary to get children more involved in nature and to educate climate change deniers.
