What Makes Us Care About Nature?

Learning at the tidepools. Credit: Amy Gotliffe

This question comes up endlessly in the world of environmental education. How do you inspire a person to learn, care and then take action for the environment? As someone whose professional goal is to inspire earth stewardship, I often ask anyone who will answer this big question.

Many are active stewards because they formed a connection with nature during childhood. This bond is deep, instinctive and primal, and was merely coaxed out by a particular, yet often simple experience outdoors: playing in the woods, on the rocks, in the creek, in the garden, in the dirt, up the tree, with the roly polys, in the ditch, in the pond, in the vacant armory (ok that was me), etc. Somewhere deep inside, a door was opened to the potential to really care. This is why Nature Deficit Disorder is so disturbing, as we wonder if children growing up void of trees and ditches and ponds have forged the same bonds.

When a child's natural curiosity is nurtured by an adult, they will likely develop an even stronger connection. Some will have this head start, yet it is never too late.

So, how does a person then become an active steward?

One model is practiced by Roots & Shoots, the activism branch of the Jane Goodall Institute, and that is: Knowledge, Compassion and Action. All three experiences, in no particular order, can lead to a sustainable behavior change. Take caring for frogs as an example and consider three different people and paths to change:

• Sam is academically inquisitive about frogs and conservation, and is self-motivated to research the subject on the internet. He begs his parents to take him on a local frog conservation program and through this action develops a deep compassion for frogs.
• Stella read a non-fiction story about a particular pond that was suddenly quiet one season, after years of being a frog croaking Mecca. She feels compassion for this species and habitat and attends a lecture on the subject. Once in the know, she donates funds to a frog conservation project.
• Nik is neither interested nor compassionate about frogs, but finds himself on a service learning outing with his 9th grade class. There, he sees dead and floating frogs with his own eyes and collects frog eggs with his own hands. The experience inspires him to pay attention in class the next week and learn more about it, eventually leading him to feel greater connection and compassion.

With this model in mind, I suppose my job is to ensure that all three options are easily available to our visiting students and guests. So I encourage all you attend an adult lecture or ZooCamp program, take action with the Arroyo Viejo Creek Keepers, or feel compassion by staring through long eyelashes into the deep brown eyes of a camel... or frog.

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