Richard Louv’s latest book, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” (Algonquin Books 2005), includes a startling quote from a fourth grader, “I like to play indoors better ‘cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.”

As people work around the country to create places that support active living, it is important to keep our cultural context in mind. Computers, TV and Gameboys seem more compelling to many of our children than the mantra many of us heard growing up, “Go outside and play.”

Yet according to research summarized in “Designing to Reduce Childhood Obesity” by Active Living Research, “three studies of preschool children found that the more time spent outdoors, the higher the activity level.” Clearly we need to do a better job prying our children away from sedentary pastimes.

As Louv describes it, Nature-Deficit Disorder (NDD) is “a description of the human costs of alienation from nature.” Louv’s book points to childhood obesity as one of the outcomes of NDD, but there are others as well, depression and Attention Deficit Disorder among them.

The Active Living Network caught up with Louv recently to find out more about Nature-Deficit Disorder and opportunities to increase “nature play.” Excerpts from the interview follow below.

Active Living Network (ALN): Are childhood obesity and Nature-Deficit Disorder problems or symptoms of a bigger problem?

Richard Louv (RL): I think they are symptoms of a larger problem. The kind of energy expended once or twice a week or once or twice a month in soccer is not the kind of energy that is spent when kids are playing outdoors in the woods or in the back yard or digging a hole in the backyard—that kind of constant activity that occurred in past generations when they got home and they burst out the back door into the back yard or the field or the woods—that is a different kind of exercise.

ALN: Where is the opportunity for planning, transportation, bike/ped and other professionals to get involved?

RL: I think urban design has a lot to do with this. And at the end of the book I make the case that a lot of strange bedfellows that usually stay in their silos can gain greatly if they come out of their silos and use the doorway issue of children’s disconnection from nature as a way to sit down at the same table.

It’s one of the things that I’ve learned about this issue since the book came out. It doesn’t matter what somebody’s politics or religion are, they all want to tell me about the tree house they built when they were kids. Or they want to tell me about the special place they had in the woods. So this is one of the few issues in America that can get us through the same door. And maybe even sit down at the same table.

Let me give you an example:

I received an email from a developer recently who builds about 10,000 houses a year. He had read the book and wrote he was “profoundly disturbed” and wanted to do something.

So he invited me to an envisioning session, which I went to with about 60 developers. He asked me to give my presentation and I did. And I didn’t expect what happened next.

He then asked them to get into small groups and solve the problem. How can we build developments in the future that will encourage kids to go outside and play?

And to my astonishment, these people were very excited. And they came back with some great ideas, not all of them practical, but things like, leaving some of the nature there in the first place, which is a good place to start. But also, having a nature center in each of these large developments that encourages kids to go out and play. The parents can then trust that someone is keeping tabs on them.

And there were a lot of other very interesting ideas. And these were developers. So I think if developers can get excited about this, there’s a lot of hope.

ALN: Where are the opportunities for the public health community to engage?

RL: Just paying attention to this—the illustration of child obesity, that nature play is simply on the map—that would be a first step. For public health to put nature play on the list of concerns when it comes to child obesity. And by doing that, they might well find themselves with some new allies.

ALN: How can we balance community growth and density with the need for places for kids to play?

RL: I think it’s a great question and involves one of the paradoxes that you have to deal with, which is density vs. sprawl. How can you have more kids in nature if there’s more density?

First, I’ve written about urban development for a long time. My first book, the name of it was America II, was a journey all over the country to look at how people were living, where they moved, and the new urban form and how the government can affect the formation of communities. I deal with this a bit in the latest book in the criminalization of natural play.

So I’ve been looking at this for a long time. And the Green Urbanism movement, which is more popular in Western Europe, shows in some ways you can actually increase density and have more nature. Some of the oldest cities in America, such as New York City and Philadelphia, actually have more nature in them than some of the newer cities that are supposedly less dense.

Density in many of the western cities, like San Diego for instance, is actually quite high even in the suburban areas. The nature in new suburbia, I think is more troubling than in the old cities. If you have the houses—the mini-mansions—cheek to jowl with yards the size of grave plots, there’s not a lot of place for kids to play. Moreover, these places tend to be very manicured and tightly controlled so that it leads to the criminalization that if a kid tries to build a tree house—you can imagine what will happen, given all the rules.

So the interest is in a different kind of urbanization, and that’s where the green urbanization, green architecture is so interesting. Because some of those communities are quite dense and yet they’ve figured out a way to insert nature into them.

Granted, it’s a kind of manufactured nature but it’s quite different than the sterile suburbs that we’re building.

For more information about Richard Louv and Nature-Deficit Disorder, visit: http://www.thefuturesedge.com

Author Richard Louv on Green Urbanism, childhood obesity and the perils of Nature-Deficit Disorder
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