Our Future Environment

I want to make a claim that an outdoor leisure environment, whether it takes the form of a public park, a private beach, or a green backyard, is correlated with a greater degree of understanding and empathy for our natural landscape. Marcelo Bonta writes of his concern about children of minority or heterogeneous race who have less access and cultural awareness of the importance of our natural environment. What will occur across sociocultural zones to influence our future leaders understanding about the necessity of outdoor leisure environments ?

” ‘The trees, the flowers, the stream, this trail. This is all yours,’ I finally answer.

‘It is? How can this all be mine?’

‘Well, it’s actually everybody’s. This forest was set aside so you and all people can always enjoy it. It will always be here. No one will ever build houses or big buildings or anything like that on this land,’ I explain.

‘Oh,’ she says, allowing the information to sink in. As she slowly realizes what I’m saying, a slight twinkle in her eyegradually grows into the big smile that always makes me melt.

‘This is my trail,’ she says, happily skipping past me back toward the distant trailhead.

My moment of nirvana is disrupted by concern about Kyra’s future — something that seems to happen fairly often.

What if, for instance, Kyra decides to follow a career path in conservation and land protection? Her love of nature is pure. And simply by exposing her to the

right opportunities, I’ve found that she absorbs anything that has to do with plants, animals, and being green. All of which makes me happy. My main concern is this: I don’t see many people who look like Kyra working for environmental organizations.

You see, Kyra is a unique mix of Jamaican, Filipino, Caucasian, and Spanish heritage. What would it be like for her to maneuver in such a homogeneous culture?”

photo credit: shoe the Linux Librarian

Filed under: future, fostering identity, natural landscape on June 21st, 2008