The National Academy of Sciences says in an upcoming report that outdoors activities are being replaced by television, the Internet and video games. This is especially troubling when you consider how little time children spend outdoors.
The study, funded by The Nature Conservancy and set to be published this week, includes data that is kind of dated (1981-1991). But there is nothing that would lead us to believe that anything has changed.
The Nature Conservancy
says in its news release:
This new study includes data on camping, backpacking, fishing, hiking,
hunting, and visits to national and state parks and forests. (Researchers) found comparable, reliable statistics from Japan and, to a
lesser extent, Spain.
They found that beginning between 1981 and 1991 there was a decline in
per capita nature recreation, dropping at rates ranging from one to 1.3
percent per year, depending on the activity studied. The typical drop
in nature use since then has been between 18 and 25 percent.
The researchers said they are concerned that if people do not experience nature in person, they won't be as interested in conservation and ecological issues as past generations have been.
The AP reports:
For example, fishing peaked in 1981 and had declined 25 percent by
2005, the researchers found. Visits to national parks peaked in 1987
and dropped 23 percent by 2006, while hiking on the Appalachian Trial
peaked in 2000 and was down 18 percent by 2005.
Japan suffered
similar declines, the researchers found, as visits to national parks
there dropped by 18 percent between 1991 and 2005.
There was a
small growth in backpacking, but that may reflect day trips by some
people who previously were campers. ... While fishing declined, hunting held onto most of its market.
Almost ten years ago the National Park Service discovered that...
