The journey back to the joys of the natural world-whether its an garden on an urban rooftop, a footpath into a lush forest, or a backyard vegetable patch-will define the beginning of this 21st century. Much of the credit for this rebirth goes to Robert Louv’s Last Child In the Woods and the “Nature Deficit Disorder” generation growing up today. Along with all the empirical and anecdotal evidence Louv cites, many studies underscore -on several levels- the need to balance our technological living with the natural world. The health of every person and the health of our world depend on it. Our mental health-our well-being-our intellectual health-as well as our physical health demand activities that take us away from the screen or the text. Moreover, placing importance on this life will ensure that those who value our environment will preserve it.
Interestingly, before the computer, the cell phone, and I Pod, earlier naturalists were defending the natural world. Mabel Osgood Wright who founded the Connecticut Audubon Society is one of those naturalists. She grew up in New York City but lived her married life in Fairfield, Connecticut. Her children books such as Four Footed Americans And Their Kin written in 1899 shows how the “House Family” interacts with the animals. Critics praise Wright's attention to portraying the animals in their natural habitat.
