Children & Nature network

Silicon Valley, Turn Off Your Computers and Go Outside

San Jose Mercury News – February 15, 2008
By Vindu Goel

Just a short drive from the creative bustle of Silicon Valley are some of the most beautiful places in the country: the majestic redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the grassy hills of the Diablo Range, the marshy wetlands of San Francisco Bay and the sandy beaches that swaddle the coast from Santa Cruz to Pacifica.

So how often do you actually shut down the computer, put away the BlackBerry, turn off the Wii and spend a day outdoors?

Not often enough.

And that's made it easier for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his band of budgeteers to propose closing 48 state parks - 17 percent of the system - and eliminating half the lifeguards at state beaches to help plug California's $14.5 billion budget gap.

The closings would save only $13.3 million - a rounding error in the budget. Thousands of people have written and called the governor and lawmakers to oppose the plan.

Part of the administration's logic is that Californians don't spend much time in their parks, so who's really going to miss a few? And you know what, Schwarzenegger's reasoning isn't as crazy as it sounds.

For the last two decades, park visitation per capita has been falling steadily in California and the rest of the United States. A recent study found the same trend in Japan and Spain.

In some ways, the phenomenon is Silicon Valley's fault.

The technologies the valley brought to the world - from personal computers to the Web to mail-order video rentals - consume an ever-increasing share of everyone's attention. Nature is literally crowded out.

Child advocate Richard Louv called the concept "nature deficit disorder" in his popular book "Last Child in the Woods." Researchers Oliver Pergams and Patty Zaradic, who have done several statistical studies analyzing our changing recreation habits, prefer the term "videophilia."

"We have access to green spaces," said Zaradic, a conservation ecologist with the Environmental Leadership Program in Bryn Mawr, Pa. "It just seems our attention has been so much on this electronic media that we haven't been paying attention to anything else."

To the great financial benefit of Silicon Valley, humanity's fascination with All Things Tech has grown tremendously over the last two decades. In 1987, the average American spent zero time surfing the Web or playing video games. By 2003, we were spending 174 hours a year on the Internet and 90 hours a year on video games. The numbers have almost certainly increased since then.

Meanwhile, outdoor activities like camping, fishing and just hanging out at a park have steadily slipped.

Even in California - where residents routinely vote to spend billions of dollars on new parkland - park attendance has fallen from a high of 86 million visits in 2002 to about 79 million last year, despite an increase in population.

"I don't want to be anti-computer games. Computers have played a tremendous role in our lives," said Ruth Coleman, director of state parks. "But kids are just not out playing in nature. Parents are afraid to let their kids go outside."

The proposed closings - which include the gargantuan Henry W. Coe State Park near Morgan Hill - won't do anything to reverse the trends. Officials predict the cuts will drive away an additional 6.5 million visitors in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

If lawmakers approve the closings, the next logical step is selling off bits and pieces of public land, warns Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the California State Parks Foundation, a non-profit group that raises money to help with various park programs.

She points to Schwarzenegger's recent support for a proposal to build a toll road through San Onofre State Beach in Southern California. Swaying the governor: $100 million offered to the state by the local agencies proposing the highway.

"It feels like things are up for grabs," Goldstein said. "They've cut the sinew and the fat and the skin. Now we're down to the bone."
As the kids like to say, that's just wrong.

With rising obesity levels, the increased onset of adult diseases like diabetes and hypertension in children, and the general stress of our modern work culture, we need our parks more, not less.

But if we value our parks, we have to prove it to the politicians - and ourselves.

Don't just fire off a letter or e-mail to the governor and your local legislator. It's a beautiful holiday weekend. Go out and enjoy a park.

And if you're out at Henry Coe on Sunday, say hello. I'll be out there voting with my feet.

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