With the cooler weather of late, I’m reminded of how amazing summer has been and how much I am not ready for it to be over yet! And that, holy shit, I’ve only been out of Regina twice since the start of the season. So, I’m frantically trying to organize my next camping weekend or two (I am really wanting to get up to northern Saskatchewan. If my lasting memory of the province is Regina and a 100km radius around it, it will be so inaccurate). I’m thinking of ways to enjoy the natural environment here while it’s still clothed in summer and doing it conscious of the impact a vacation might have on the environment.
In the July 29th issue of prairie dog in the article “Indoor Kids”, David Suzuki points to a generation growing up increasingly unfamiliar with nature, and therefore not being concerned about it’s plight. Ahmed Djoghlaf, secretary general of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, has echoed Suzuki’s words in a Guardian article earlier this week saying “Children today haven’t a clue about nature… How can you protect nature if you do not know it?”
I don’t think it’s just children who are becoming increasingly detached from nature. I was horrified at hearing the other day that a friend of mine went camping with some mates in an RV! I mean, you’re in your early 20’s, you can’t be retired yet! Have we become far too attached to our creature comforts? Are we becoming disengaged with the natural world and then wondering why we don’t think more about how we can live greener?
I hope the answer is a resounding ‘NO!’. The challenge is to think of how our next trip away will include being conscious of the natural world, and a challenge even bigger still, to make getting back to nature part of our daily lives and not just a camping trip or two when the weather is right. I’m beginning to think more and more that “getting back” to nature is the only way we will ever go forward.
guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 August 2010 17.21 BST
