We all need heroes. Richard Louv, the author of Last Child in the Woods, is one of my heroes. Rich was the first to coin the phrase 'nature deficit disorder' which refers to our disconnect with nature and the potential harm that it can impose on human beings. In Last Child, Rich provided readers with an education on this subject and encouraged all of us to become part of the new nature movement. His follow-up book, The Nature Principle highlighted the importance of adult conn

It seems that with every advancement in technology the distance between ourselves and nature grows. The newest feature in cars is built in WIFI. When I first heard about this so-called “advancement” I was completely baffled. It never fails to surprise me the lengths we’ll go to in order to stay connected to social media and entertainment. The reality is that many people are incapable of car travel without some form of entertainment, or more likely, some form of entertainment

My friend Richard Louv loves to write. At least I think he must love it because he writes – a lot – and for a lot of different organizations and publications. I really admire the fact that he has this amazing ability to tell stories, he is gifted at using words and he can paint a picture of images and ideas he wants to share by using language. In one of his latest articles he talks about how to use technology while in nature – what a great idea! He talks about how children to

Recently I received letters from a class in Haiti. Their teacher had shown them some of my work on nature deficit disorder and she asked them to comment on the idea that “people who haven’t experienced nature have been robbed of a gift, kids have been robbed of part of their childhood.” Their observations were so moving, they have to be shared. These are kids from wealthy families who mostly have to stay in their own gated yards or indoors for fear of being taken. They were

Well, it took a year to make but it’s finally done. My latest movie, The Child in Nature is all about nature deficit disorder, the subject of my TEDx talk in the fall. Richard Louv is featured in the film and I have him to thank for the topic since he created the term. Ruth Foster first introduced me to the concept of the disconnect between people, especially kids, and nature when I was 8 years old. The concept stayed in my mind for a long time so I decided to make a movie ab

Thanks to a whole bunch of remarkable individuals and months of hard work, a very special group of people were able to give some kids in Vancouver the chance to speak about their passions in a TEDx talk at Telus World of Science. I was thrilled to be a presenter at this event and in fact it’s the reason I didn’t write a post here for five months – I was practicing my TED talk! I had watched a lot of TED talks over the years but never imagined having the chance to do one mysel

Recently I travelled to California to meet with Richard Louv, the author of Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle. After interviewing Mr. Louv he turned the camera around and interviewed me! The post below is a blog that I submitted for the Child and Nature Network and a link to that interview. Guest blog for Child and Nature Network Check out Richard’s Books #RichardLouv #ChildrenandNatureNetwork #thenatureprinciple #naturedeficitdisorder