Children and Nature.

The Wildlife Trust have started an initiative called Every Child Wild and it's based on a concept that I have a lot of feelings about.

I am a huge supporter of protecting our environment which is why I've studied it and I also stand by my opinion that humans are the worst thing to have happened to this planet. We have done an incomprehensible amount of damage to the earth in the short time we as a species have inhabited it. Before I get too deep into the negative I promise I'm not all doom and gloom, there is hope people! That hope lies with kids.

The idea that today's kids don't go outside very often is nothing new, but it's something I feel needs to change. And soon. With so much technology at our finger tips it's often considered the only way to entertain children. All this has led to a severe lack of understanding and appreciation for the environment right outside our doors.
Of course I love having the internet, TV, film and music readily available but when I was young these were luxuries not something I was constantly glued to (obviously now I'm a grown up I'm allowed to have an unhealthy, extremely dependent relationship with my phone and laptop....).

Some of my best memories from childhood are the ones where I was outside and in nature. Most days I would be out of the house and my parents would take us on walks to the parks and woods nearly every weekend - TV was only really there for when the whether wouldn't allow us to be outside. (FYI the picture in the title image is of one of my favourite places, the woods near my house has for as long as I can remember had this "dragon" log. I used to sit on it and was convinced it was once a real flying dragon and had been turned into wood by magic.)

These kids are the ones who will soon be in control of the future of the earth and the idea that they could go into that future completely blind to the needs of nature is terrifying. Knowledge is key and let's be honest kids will only learn if they are interested and they are fully immersed so we need to make it fun and engaging! Sitting them down and droning on about how shit the current state of the planet is isn't going to enthuse them to take action, in fact it's pretty damn depressing.
Get them out there, let them experience all the beauty that the earth has to offer, only then will children realise what we stand to lose.... and actually care about it. Even if it encourages them to make the simplest changes like recycling more or planting vegetables in the garden when they're older it matters. The smallest changes can have the biggest impacts.

I stand by this campaign to get the young'uns out and about. Get excited, get muddy, get dirty and get MAD about the environment.

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