The Extinction of Experience: Youth, Nature, and Sustainability in the Digital Age

Being a kid ain't what it used to be. During the past generation, childhood has undergone a profound and, until recently, largely ignored transformation. American children today spend 90% less time outdoors than their parents did. Nearly 20% of our kids are obese, with health consequences that include rampant diabetes and heart disease. Almost 10% of children in the US have been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), and a significant proportion take the antidepressant Ritalin. Some health experts argue the present generation of children will be the first of the modern age to have a life expectancy less than that of their parents. Indoors, kids are staring at screens 7–10 hours each day, replacing reality with virtual alternatives. Astoundingly, children today can recognize over 1000 corporate logos, but less than a dozen plants native to their region. The net result is what author Robert Michael Pyle has dubbed "the extinction of experience," highlighted by a gaping chasm between children and nature.

To compound matters, the eco-crisis currently threatening humanity and much of the biosphere is less an external crisis of environment than an internal crisis of mind. The dominant view in the Western world sees nature as resources to be exploited rather than relatives worthy of respect. Sustainability will require that we re-envision the human-nature relationship and develop a strong sense of compassion for the nonhuman world. But how are we to make such a profound transformation? How can we nurture affective bonds with nature, particularly at a time when most of humanity has migrated to cities, and children's attention is captured by glowing screens indoors?

In this presentation, Sampson will present his provocative new idea, the "Topophilia Hypothesis," which proposes that we possess an innate bias to form emotional bonds with local nature. He will also summarize recent efforts to foster emotional connections with nature-in particular among youth-and offer some novel solutions to this pressing problem. Education, he will propose, should be less about careerism and more about values, with the classic trio of beauty, truth, and goodness leading the way. The takeaway message is that we must begin locally, a lesson with broad cultural implications that span parenting, education, architecture, city planning, politics, religion, and the arts. Far from offering a paean to tribal living or the notion that "small is beautiful," Sampson will address how we might broker a new human-nature relationship in this globally interconnected digital age.

Speaker: Scott Sampson

RSVP online

BBLC Lecture Hall