Technology and... Nature?

I will begin by admitting that I love modern, digital technology; unabashedly and unashamedly I am enthralled by what we've managed to do with silicone and electricity. The sheer volume of information we can access and control, the content we can create at a moment's notice, is unprecedented in human history. The reality of being able to access, manipulate and add to - in a very real sense - the whole of human knowledge from a device smaller than a package of cigarettes, is unbelievable. To use a word that is over-used in the English language: It's awesome.

Not awesome in the sense of, pancakes in bed are awesome. I mean awesome, like, I have seen the depths of universe and have been irrevocably changed by it, awesome. The technology that we wield with aplomb and abandon, is nothing short of Awesome (capital A intended).

Now, here is the "However".

I think that our technology has limits to where it belongs.

In an age where children are exposed to screens for an average of 53 hours per week outside of school time, that there are some places where we need to put the devices away. While information is powerful, it cannot replace experience. In many cases I think it can't even augment experience in a meaningful way. Every time we place a screen between us and a real experience, we are mediating that experience. We are making the experience more sterile, cleaner. The trade off is that we can access all sorts of supplementary information about the experience by mediating it.

My question is: Is it worth it? Is the extra information we can get online, via smart-device worth the price of tactility? Would you rather have your child learn about the animals in a wetland by leaning in with a dip net, carefully catching insects, larvae, fish, amphibians and, with the guidance of a facilitator, learn about those animals and all the connections between the animals, the habitat, the child and the greater environment beyond? Or, would you rather your child stood at the edge of the pond, pointed a digital device at it, took a picture and the went surfing online for information about ponds and wetlands - all while texting their friends?

I will choose the less-sterile, more connected experience every time.

You may argue that some kids don't have the opportunity to visit natural spaces, to get dirty and to explore wetlands (keeping with our pond example). I would counter-argue, that it's your responsibility as a parent to provide your child with those experiences. If you can't, there are resources in almost every community that can help you. And often, those resources are free-to-minimal-cost.

The point is, that nature doesn't need to be mediated. Experiences with nature and natural environments don't need to be enhanced with video, interactive content and QR codes taking you to websites for more information.

I argued in an earlier post (two or three years ago) that we have lost our ability to be awed. At that time I was talking about technology. We have lost our ability to be astounded by the next great thing our digital device will do. We simply expect the next generation-device to be faster, more advanced, more capable. Well, I think that along with the inability to be awed by technology, we've lost our ability to be awed by nature.

We - and I admit I'm talking in broad strokes here - live in a society that is so driven by dynamic imagery, that we can look at the mist on a pond say to ourselves "Pretty", and then pull out our phones to check in to twitter or Facebook. We have lost the ability to watch the mist curl over the water and dance on the air currents. We have lost the desire to simply sit at the pond edge and watch the ducklings trail along behind their mother or to peer through the cattails and spy on a fishing spider, dangling over the water. We'd rather point our phones at a code and watch a video of the very thing that is in front of us - live.

And yet, when we interpreters can get people's attention and get them to sit and close their eyes and listen or to simply sit and watch the pond with new eyes, they're hooked. I've seen well-healed, metro-urbanites nearly brought to tears when they sat on the Nature Centre's viewing deck and simply listened to the activity on the pond.

Invariably the first two words out of their mouths are: "That's Awesome."

Garbage Goes in the Can. Come ON People!

Litter. Have I ranted about litter here? Probably not.

So, here's the thing. In this day and age where we have (somewhat) intelligent conversations about environmental issues like water conservations, global climate change, declining fish stocks, deforestation, acid rain, light pollution, heavy metals, desertification and myriad other problems, why do I still find litter on the ground?

I don't mean gum wrappers and cigarette butts either. I mean full-on, deliberately tossed, "I don't give shit about shit" garbage on the ground. By way of example I was at the local Save-On-Foods on Sunday night. Save-On shares its parking lot with a McDonalds and other businesses. In the parking stall right next to me was a McD's bag and drink cup. There was a garbage can less than 10 feet away.

This was a large bag. It didn't fall out a car door unnoticed. How could it? I can't make any reasonable path to a conclusion where the owner of the bag didn't know it was on the ground. Someone sat in a parking stall, ate their crap from McDs and then threw the bag and cup out the window and drove away.

So, after picking up the bag & cup and throwing them in the garbage can I scanned the parking lot. I saw: two Tim Horton's cups, another McD's bag, an empty 750ml pop bottle and a cigarette pack. Needless to say I was late getting my groceries and had to use the store's bathroom to wash up.

I know that a few bad apples shouldn't spoil the bushel (or whatever) but I can't help but despair for a society that can't clean up after themselves. If we can't get to a universal, basic like "don't throw your crap on the ground", how are we supposed to engage people in larger discussions? I honestly thought we were past this; at least at a local, parking-lot type level.

But then maybe its all perspective. Maybe the trash in the parking lot is just part of the flotsam we seem to be comfortable with. After all, we don't seem really quick to do anything collective about the Pacific Ocean garbage dump. It may get cleaned up. However it will be a private contractor taking on the job rather than governments and the polluters that support them. And likely, that's how the suburbia parking lots, the downtown streets and few remaining green belts will get treated. Contractors will be hired to do clean up and as long as people can see their stuff simply disappear, they'll continue to refuse to take any responsibility.

I have in the past pointed out people's refuse to them with a friendly "Looks like you dropped something there" but I usually get a profanity-laced response. I once waited for the garbage tosser to walk from their car to the store then picked up their Tim's cup and Tim Bits box and wedged them under the windshield wiper. It was all gone when I left the store. I like to think of it as Guerrilla Community Based Social Marketing: Shame the person, build a better habit, educate and do it all without getting your face kicked in. It's an interesting challenge.

So, if you (you better not) find your tossed garbage wedged between your side mirror and door or under a wiper-blade, take the hint and throw your garbage where it belongs: neatly separated into the appropriate blue bin for paper, plastics and glass. If that's too hard, just throw the damn stuff out in a garbage can. I know that at least I feel better having made your life a little more difficult so that we can have a slightly cleaner place to live.