Richard Louv on biophilia

Q. Are we hard wired to be outside?

It was fantastic to have the opportunity to speak with Richard Louv, author and journalist focused on nature, family and community.  In his book 'Last child in the Woods; Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder' Louv investigates what has happened in the last two generations with regards to children spending time outside.  The picture he paints is one of disconnect from nature that I am hoping we will, as a society, start to reverse.  We have the evidence of the importance of spending time outside, now let's start reversing the trend and find some balance for this generation between technology and nature.

For your convenience, here is the transcript of this interview:

Q.  Are we hard wired to be outside?

A.  "E.O. Wilson of Harvard, the great scientist and father of sociobiology and biodiversity calls this his biophilia hypothesis. And much of the research recently, finally, that has emerged on this, was inspired by E.O. Wilson's biophilia hypothesis.  It is a theory, but the studies that are emerging do seem to very much support his idea, his contention, that human beings are genetically wired to need nature.  We need to be with species other than our own, we need to get our hands dirty.  When we don't get enough of that, we don't do so well.  Now think about it for a minute... For all of human history and prehistory children went outside and spent most of their developing years in nature.  Within the matter of two or three decades, we're seeing the virtual reversal of that if we're not careful.  Evolution doesn't work that fast.

Could this have something to do with the huge increase in the number of kids that are being placed on Ridalin and other stimulants, not all of them, some kids need medication, could it have something to do with the huge amount of kids being placed on antidepressants.  Young, little kids, the most medicated generation in history.  And the teen suicide rate, might that have something to do with the fact that we've so radically changed childhood.  In such a short period of time, we've taken them out of nature, we've put them in cubicles and given them pharmaceuticals and we expect better behaviour.  We really need to question that.