Have you visited a national park lately?
"The iconic American family vacation to a national park, after 50 years of rising popularity, is now in steady decline. From 1987 to 2007, per capita visits to national parks shrank by 23 percent" (Scientific American hereafter mentioned as Sci Am).
I only went to one last year. Why didn't I go to more? Well, personally, work. I wouldn't let myself take the time off. What is your excuse?
"Surprisingly, we discovered that 97.5 percent of the decline in national park visits could be explained by just four factors: the rising price of gasoline and the increasing amount of time people spend plying the Web, playing video games and watching movies. Although correlation is not causation, the relationship was strong."The last three of those four factors, web, video games, and movies, really blend into one. That one I call 'life.' Sci Am "coined the term 'videophilia' to describe 'the new human tendency to focus on sedentary activities involving electronic media.'" The problem appears to be: less people coming to parks, less funding. Less ardent support for environmental protection.
As Sci Am puts it, "Nature: use it or lose it."
Well, I'm going to go watch a rerun of Seinfeld.
1 comment:
We went to three... is that good? Although we didn't pay to go to any of them! So we go, but we don't really help with the funding- although we don't really want to give them our money cause then they just pave more trails. We like them all natural. Plus, we don't mind less people. Sulphur Creek was incredible- plus, no people but us :).
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