As a child I was introduced to nature by my father, who was an avid fisherman. However, even before he kindled that love of nature, I was fascinated by astronomy, and the unknown worlds awaiting our exploration. I loved science fiction books, and their vision of the future in space.
I recently reread a classic science fiction novel called Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov. The novel is essentially a murder mystery set on Earth in the distant future. In this future Earth, all people live in domed, climate controlled cities. The cities are connected by enclosed passageways. Not only does no one ever need to venture outside these enclosures, no one would even think about doing so. According to the book, humans living in the cities are incapable of going outside the domes.
While this story takes place long after I will be gone, I hope this is not our future. I believe that contact with the natural world is part of what makes us human. I would hate to think that people in the distant future would separate themselves from this contact.
Yet looking around us I already see movement in that direction. More people are living in larger cities every year. Teachers in inner city schools, when they take school trips to parks, often find that their students are afraid of nature, even such things as butterflies and chipmunks.
With the establishment of Prophetstown State Park in 2004, Division of State Parks accomplished their stated goal of having a state park within an hour’s drive of every Hoosier. They are committed to doing everything they can to make their parks accessible to all. However, that may not be enough. If you were not raised in a family that utilized parks, taking that weekend trip to the nearest state park may not be on your radar.
I feel sure that part of the solution is to take nature to the cities. All cities have parks, but many of them are primarily for youth sports facilities (which are also important), and efforts to expand them often lag behind growth in urban populations. We need to redouble our efforts to keep up with that growth.
State parks also need to be part of this effort to take nature to the cities, as several state parks are located within or adjacent to cities. Interpretive naturalists in state parks currently have outreach programs to schools. These efforts, particularly in large urban areas like Indianapolis, need to increase. This will require increases in interpretive naturalists to lead the efforts, and obviously funding for those positions.
I’m sure there are many other actions that can be taken to keep this disconnect with nature from worsening. It is up to us to find these solutions and prioritize them.
Spoiler alert for Caves of Steel:
Commission of the crime requires transporting the murder weapon across a natural area between two of the domed cities, thus bypassing the security measures in the interconnecting passageway. The murderer uses an android to transport the murder weapon through the natural area, since obviously he is not capable of traversing it himself.