Now, my tree-climbing days long behind me, I often think about the lasting value of those early, deliciously idle days. I have… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
Research suggests that exposure to the natural world - including nearby nature in cities - helps improve human health, well-being, and intellectual… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
There is another possibility: not the end of nature, but the rebirth of wonder and even joy. — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
Environment-based education produces student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math; improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages; and develops… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
Time spent in nature is the most cost-effective and powerful way to counteract the burnout and sort of depression that we feel… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
There is a real world, beyond the glass, for children who look, for those whose parents encourage them to truly see. — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
It takes time--loose, unstructured dreamtime-- to experience nature in a meaningful way. Unless parents are vigilant, such time becomes a scarce resource,… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
Increasingly the evidence suggests that people benefit so much from contact with nature that land conservation can now be viewed as a… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
It's easy to blame the nature-deficit disorder on the kids' or the parents' back, but they also need the help of urban… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
The times I spent with my children in nature are among my most meaningful memories-and I hope theirs. — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
We tend to block off many of our senses when we're staring at a screen. Nature time can literally bring us to… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
“Joni Mitchell had it right: "They paved paradise / and put up a parking lot." But perhaps, in the near future, we… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
All spiritual life begins with a sense of wonder, and nature is a window into that wonder. — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
The dugout in the weeds or leaves beneath a backyard willow, the rivulet of a seasonal creek, even the ditch between the… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
Progress does not have to be patented to be worthwhile. Progress can also be measured by our interactions with nature and its… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
An indoor (or backseat) childhood does reduce some dangers to children; but other risks are heightened, including risks to physical and psychological… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
If a child never sees the stars, never has meaningful encounters with other species, never experiences the richness of nature, what happens… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
Prize the natural spaces and shorelines most of all, because once they're gone, with rare exceptions they're gone forever. In our bones… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
In every bio-region, one of the most urgent tasks is to rebuild the community of naturalists - so radically depleted in recent… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
As a species, we are most animated when our days and nights on Earth are touched by the natural world. We can… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
Each of us-adult or child-must earn nature's gift by knowing nature directly, however difficult it may be to glean that knowledge in… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
To take nature and natural play away from children may be tantamount to withholding oxygen. — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
“She was one of those exceptional children who do still spend time outside, in solitude. In her case nature represented beauty - and refuge.… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
Children need nature for the healthy development of their senses, and therefore, for learning and creativity. — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
As the young spend less of their lives in natural surroundings, their senses narrow, physiologically and psychologically and this reduces the richness of human… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
No other youth group like the Scouts has trained so many future leaders while at the same time being a nature organization with its… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
In medieval times, if someone displayed the symptoms we now identify as boredom, that person was thought to be committing something called acedia, a… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
Rather than accepting the drifting separation of the generations, we might begin to define a more complex and interesting set of life stages and… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
This seems clear enough: When truly present in nature, we do use all our senses at the same time, which is the optimum state… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
Reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival. — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
“Most scientists who study human perception no longer assume that we have five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing. The current number ranges… — Richard Louv Copy Share Image
