{"id":6384,"date":"2015-07-10T07:10:53","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T07:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6384"},"modified":"2015-07-10T07:10:53","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T07:10:53","slug":"that-little-tent-of-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/07\/10\/that-little-tent-of-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"That little tent of blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

I never saw a man who looked<\/em>
\nWith such a wistful eye<\/em>
\nUpon that little tent of blue<\/em>
\nWhich prisoners call the sky,<\/em>
\nAnd at every drifting cloud that went<\/em>
\nWith sails of silver by.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In his introductory remarks to the Near 'n' Far conference<\/a> last week,\u00a0Andy Clements, from the British Trust for Ornithology, became the latest person to talk\u00a0about our \"disconnect from nature\". \u00a0He said\u00a0that people in the UK\u00a0now spend\u00a040% less time \"in nature\" than a few years ago, that\u00a01.3m people never \"visit nature\" at all, and that only 10% of schools\u00a0do so.<\/p>\n

Prior to all this nonsense, he'd said that nature is linked to learning, health and wellbeing, that it\u00a0is the foundation of our health, and a place for\u00a0exploration. \u00a0He talked about his own early and significant life experiences [SLE] which had led in some way to his current interests, role and position.<\/p>\n

All that reminded me of a talk I heard some years back when SLE research was all the rage. \u00a0In this, it was\u00a0said that if we could only find out which SLEs were particularly significant, we could ensure that everybody experienced\u00a0them. \u00a0I remember the teacher sitting next to me turning and whispering, \"That is rubbish, isn't it<\/em>?\" \u00a0 I assured her it was. \u00a0It still is, but we find it hard to accept that what's good for one person will not do for someone else; instead, we get into moral panics and invent dodgy\u00a0concepts such as \"nature deficit disorder\".<\/p>\n

Andy Clements<\/a>, as well as being Director\u00a0of the British Trust for Ornithology, is a\u00a0Board Member of Natural England, and a Trustee of the National Biodiversity Network, so he obviously knows\u00a0more than most\u00a0about \"nature\". \u00a0It's a pity, then, that he didn't\u00a0talk about it in a more nuanced way.<\/p>\n

I said, earlier, that his comment that \"people in the UK now spend 40% less time \"in nature\" than a few years ago\" was nonsense, because it is. \u00a0Given that we humans\u00a0are part of nature, it is hard to see how we could be spending less time in it than before. \u00a0And as for the 1.3 million who are said never visit nature, well, they don't need to because it comes visiting them every day. \u00a0They don't even\u00a0need to move \u2013 unless they are locked away somewhere: a prison, perhaps \u2013 or a conference in East London.<\/p>\n

Like most\u00a0people in \"our field\", Andy knows all this. \u00a0But we conspire to make it difficult for people to understand what we are trying to say\u00a0by using simplistic terminology. \u00a0How much easier it is to say that people never visit nature than to explain what is\u00a0meant, and why it's a problem.<\/p>\n

As for\u00a0what is meant, let me refer you back to the Essex<\/a> University report for the Wildlife Trusts which had a good go at teasing out the issues, albeit imperfectly. \u00a0I was rather surprised that the authors were not invited to speak at the conference.<\/p>\n

And finally, let me mention, again, what I highlighted<\/a>\u00a0the other day from Simon Beames' talk:<\/p>\n

\"We need to reconceptualise 'adventure' so as to gain theoretical purpose\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This\u00a0applies to our\u00a0'being in nature' as well.<\/p>\n

.................................................................................<\/p>\n

I know not whether Laws be right,<\/em>
\n Or whether Laws be wrong;<\/em>
\nAll that we know who lie in goal<\/em>
\n Is that the wall is strong;<\/em>
\nAnd that each day is like a year,<\/em>
\n A year whose days are long.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky, And at every drifting cloud that went With sails of silver by. In his introductory remarks to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-talks-and-presentations"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}