The title comes from Richard Louv book Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature deficint
desorder. I thought this title was approperate for this article, after suffing in cyperspace I stop by the Center For Fortean Zoology website and came across a article by David Attenborough "I would have never been a naturalist under today's fossil laws". Being a important subject I thought to repost the article here in hopes of reaching more people, and keep the idea fresh in people thoughts.The link for the article can be found here http://networkedblogs.com/EFYY8 . In the article it addresed one part of the promblem "Part of the reason for that is easy to identify, and that is because it's no longer allowed-no longer legal-to be a collector." Starting and maintaining a Natural history collection is a important part of being a Naturalist. There is multiple cause for why children spend less time outdoors and why they have less access to nature; our growing addiction to electronic media, the relinquishment of green spaces to development, parent's exaggered fears of natural and human preadors, and the threat of lawsuits and vandalism that has prompted community officals to forbid accers to their land.
As if there aren't enough real concerns in life, a segment of the media and goverment find it useful to maintain their flow of money and power by keeping everyone as scared as possible and dependent upon them for "protection." This tendency is bad news for wildlife. What are kids supposed to think when being confronted with animals? "Animals are hazardous and should only be dealt with by experts. Don't go into the woods or you might encounter a wild animal and get hurt. Who needs to have places like that around, with dangerous wild creatures lurking in them?" The wildlife shows today are a mixed bleasing. While highlighting the wonders and diversity of the natural world, the "animal jockys" also try hard to amp up viewers adrenaline by constanly uttering phrasses like "deadly","extremly risk" and "death-defying" Psedo-conservation followers love this whole approach, because it fuels their agenda to break direct contact with wildlife. This fits right in with their goals of eliminating Herps and other animals as pets. Why do you think the Humane society of the United States (HSUS), the most anti-herp organization out there, runs commercials during those shows?
Conservationist John Clare said "I for one would not be a scientist if it weren't for my encounters with amphibians in captivity as a child".
