Episode 4: Nature Deficit Disorder with Jackie Ostfeld (Sierra Club)

Environmental-Awareness-Nature-Deficit-Disorder-Image

Is Nature Deficit Disorder really a thing? Jackie Ostfeld believes so, and talks with us about why green spaces are so important for our cities and for our own health.

Learn more about environmental awareness here!

Episode Intro Notes

What we’ll cover

How it relates to sustainability

What is nature deficit disorder?
What is causing nature deficit disorder?
What are the effects of nature deficit disorder?
Solutions

How relates to sustainability

This issue is another reason why need to think carefully about how we plan our cities and how we both manage and make accessible our protected areas.

It also relates to how we’re going to create the next generation of stewards to buy-in to the sustainable practices that we need to adopt.

What is nature deficit disorder?

Term coined by Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods. It refers to human beings, especially children, now spend less time outdoors and this leads to a range of behavioral problems and a general disconnect to wildlife and other natural resources. It is not a medical diagnosis; rather, it serves as a description of the effects of humans being aloof from the natural world (1).

What is causing nature deficit disorder?

Parents keeping children indoors to keep them safe. Growing fear of “stranger danger.” Big win for “free range” parenting movement last January when the Every Student Succeeds Act passed Congress with a section that protects the rights of kids to walk or go out alone (2). This doesn’t replace any state or local laws on the issue. There are stories of a mother being arrested because her eight year old son walked to school after missing the bus and another story of a Maryland family where kids ages 6 and 10 were picked up by cops in three cars and detained for six hours, away from their parents because they were walking home from the park.
Proliferation of technology. Kids choosing to stay inside to play the latest video games and whatnot. A November 2015 CNN Article talked about a report by Common Sense Media (nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, and educators navigate the world of media and technology) that found on any given day, teens in the U.S. spend nine hours using media for their enjoyment. That’s more time than most spend sleeping and doesn’t include time spent on it at school. Tweens (ages 8-12) spend about six hours on average consuming media. Report based on national sample of more than 2,600 young people ages 8 to 18. (14)

What are the effects of nature deficit disorder?

Attention disorders and depression may develop. One University of Illinois study found that interaction with nature reduced symptoms of ADD in children. This was a nationwide study of children ages 5-18 in rural to urban environments. ADHD affects 2 million school-aged children and 2-4% of adults. That equates to 1 in every 14 children. “Overall, our findings indicate that exposure to ordinary natural settings in the course of common after-school and weekend activities may be widely effective in reducing attention deficit symptoms in children.” (3).

It may lead to lower productivity in the classroom. Studies have shown that schools that use outdoor classrooms and other forms of experiential education produce significant student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math. One 2005 study by the California Department of Education found that students in outdoor science programs improved their science testing scores by 27%. (4).

According to a range of studies, children in outdoor-education settings show increases in self-esteem, problem solving, and motivation to learn. (4).

Childhood obesity is an issue. Over the past 30 years, childhood obesity has more than doubled for adolescents and more than tripled for children ages 6-11.

Solutions

Children & Nature Network was set up to connect all children, their families, and communities to nature. One thing they have is community networks for people to connect with others in the movement. For instance, there is a Natural Teachers Network, Natural Families Network, and Natural Leaders Network that trains youth leaders ages 18-29.

Family Nature Clubs are made up of groups of families with one or more organizers that invite others to share in their passion for the natural world and connecting children and families to it on a regular basis. The tagline many use is “play date on a trail.” It gives families quality time together and gives them a connection to the community. (5).

Cities Connecting Children to Nature Initiative. OAK (group Jackie involved with), C&NN, and Wilderness Inquiry are partners in this. It will support cities that want to build and strengthen connections to nature as integral elements of city plans and policies, programs, partnerships, and leadership strategies. Goal is to help city leaders take actions to create “nature-rich” cities and increase access to nature for all residents. Cities can play a role in closing the “nature gap,” particularly among low-income children and children of color. (6). Seven cities recently chosen for the planning phase of initiative where will conduct gap and asset assessments, participate in an international conference, and bring teams together from mayors’ offices, parks departments, and non-profit community organizations. Implementation plans will be developed by August 2016. (7).

In late May 2016 is the Children & Nature Network 2016 International Conference and Cities & Nature Summit. (8)

Adding green features to playgrounds can reduce boredom and signs of depression. In a six month study of 46 2-5 year olds in British Columbia, they filmed them at a daycare center where the playground was largely concrete play areas and lacked green features. The kids were bored or dazed. When affordable alternatives were put in--water, bamboo, sand, and ornamental grass features, depressive symptoms (looking sad and not smiling much) went way down. (9)

Keep funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The LWCF was created by Congress in 1965. With the LWCF, revenues from the depletion of one natural resource-offshore oil and gas-are used to conserve another natural resource-our land and water. Every year, $900 million in royalties paid by energy companies drilling for oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf are put into this fund. This money is intended to create and protect national parks, areas around rivers, and lakes, national forests, and national wildlife refuges from development, and to provide matching grants for state and local parks and recreation projects. Unfortunately, Congress often diverts much of this money. The result is a substantial backlog of federal land acquisition needs estimated at more than $30 billion. This includes places vulnerable to development such as the Florida Everglades, the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, and Civil War battlefields in Virginia. State governments also report needing $27 billion in LWCF funds for eligible local parks and recreation projects. (10). The new bipartisan energy bill that just passed the Senate includes a permanent reauthorization of the LWCF. Across the lifetime of the LWCF, Congress has only appropriated about 45% of the trust fund for its intended purpose of preserving public lands. Over $19 billion has been diverted from the LWCF by Congress over the course of the program’s life. (11).

John Jarvis (director of National Park Service) says that he has $18 million right now from the LWCF and is focused on “park-deficient communities.” He says like there are food deserts, there are also park deserts--communities that for one reason or another have no access to green space or whatever space they had has been trashed. They will soon be announcing monetary grants where communities can apply to create green space out of things like old shopping malls, derelict buildings, etc. Apparently some mayors have committed to there being an outdoor space within few blocks of every citizen of the city (I tried finding this via google but could not…).

More “park prescriptions.” ParkRx are programs designed in collaboration among public land agencies, healthcare providers, and community partners to encourage people to utilize parks, trails, and open spaces for the purpose of improving individual and community health. (12). This program gives tools to healthcare providers to inspire patients to spend more time recreating and playing in our parks and public lands, something scientifically proven to improve mental, physical, and social health.

Louv thinks the future of schools are ones that are nature-based, not necessarily new tech (13). This relates to the issue of schools cutting back on recess and field trips. Louv says in Scandinavian countries, a number of schools are “all-weather schools” where kids spend a good part of the day outdoors no matter what the weather is and those kids have fewer colds and less flu. Finland leads the world in math and science tests, and it puts a premium on spending as much time outdoors as possible. In a typical Finnish school, kids spend 45 minutes indoors and then go outside for 15 minutes and run around.

Miscellaneous. Some refer to this as getting enough Vitamin N. In fact, Richard Louv is launching a book titled VITAMIN N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life. This is a collection of 500 ways that families, communities, teachers, doctors, and all kinds of people can connect not only kids but themselves to the natural world. (13)