"Save children's relationship with the outdoors" - The National Trust

I would remiss not to post this even though it is doing the rounds on the BBC and other websites and blogs and you may have seen it already. It is too important not to mention.

The National Trust in the UK have published a report where they say:

"Evidence of a long-term and dramatic decline in children’s relationship with the outdoors is ‘overwhelming’ and urgent action is needed to bridge this growing gap before its too late."

Mentioning "Nature Deficit Disorder" they also point out the following statistics revealing that things have changed dramatically in just one generation:

• Fewer than ten per cent of kids play in wild places; down from 50 per cent a generation ago
• The roaming radius for kids has declined by 90 per cent in one generation (thirty years)
• Three times as many children are taken to hospital each year after falling out of bed, as from falling out of trees
• A 2008 study showed that half of all kids had been stopped from climbing trees, 20 per cent had been banned from playing conkers or games of tag

Time to get involved......