Reconnecting to Nature in the Age of Technology

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A best-selling author argues that our relationship with our natural environment is in jeopardy, imperiling our future well-being. But the growing trend of social networking may in fact inspire new tools to help us restore nature to our lives.

Every day, our relationship with nature, or the lack of it, influences our lives. This has always been true. But in the twenty-first century, our survival-or thrival- will require a transformative framework for that relationship, a reunion of humans with the rest of nature. In 2005, in Last Child in the Woods, I introduced the term nature-deficit disorder, not as a medical diagnosis, but as a way to describe the growing gap between children and nature. After the book's publication, I heard many adults speak with heartfelt emotion, even anger, about this separation, but also about their own sense of loss.

In my most recent book, The Nature Principle, I describe a future shaped by an amalgam of converging theories and trends as well as a reconciliation with old truths. This amalgam, the Nature Principle, holds that a reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival.

Primarily a statement of philosophy, the Nature Principle is supported by a growing body of theoretical, anecdotal, and empirical research that describes the restorative power of nature-its impact on our senses and intelligence; on the physical, psychological, and spiritual health; and on the bonds of family, friendship, and the multispecies community. Illuminated by ideas and stories from good people I have met, the book asks: What would our lives be like if our days and nights were as immersed in nature as they are in technology? How can each of us help create that life-enhancing world, not only in a hypothetical future, but right now, for our families and for ourselves?

Our sense of urgency grows. In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half the world's population lived in towns and cities. The traditional ways that humans have experienced nature are vanishing, along with biodiversity.

At the same time, our culture's faith in technological immersion seems to have no limits, and we drift ever deeper into a sea of circuitry. We consume breathtaking media accounts of the creation of synthetic...