Too much TV, Internet harming protection of biodiversity, U.N. says

Because many young people are urbanized and alienated from nature, they may not realize the value of protecting natural ecosystems and species.

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Agence France-Presse

Tue, May 31 2011 at 6:41 AM

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Nature, UN, Biodiversity, Computers, Web, Technology, TV Shows, No Child Left Inside

INDOORS: Children in developed countries spend 95 percent of their free time watching TV or on the computer, and 20 percent of American children have never climbed a tree. (Photo: jupiterimages)

Young people's fascination with television, the Internet, video games and other electronic entertainment is making it more difficult to protect the world's biodiversity, a UN official warned Tuesday.

Because many young people are urbanized and alienated from nature, they may not realize the value of protecting natural ecosystems and species, said Ahmed Djoghlaf, the United Nations executive secretary on biological diversity.

"Our children are behind their computers, their SMS, their videogames, watching TV. They are living in a virtual world and we need to reconnect them with nature," Djoghlaf told a Southeast Asian biodiversity forum in Manila.

"They don't see how a potato is grown. They just see potatoes at a shelf in the supermarket."

He cited surveys showing children in developed countries spend 95 percent of their free time watching TV or on the computer and only 5 percent outdoors. Another survey said 20 percent of American children had never climbed a tree, Djoghlaf said.

Arguing that the lack of education was one of the biggest threats to preserving natural heritage, Djoghlaf cited a survey of Europe in 2009 which found that 60 percent of the population did not know the meaning of the word "biodiversity."

"How can you protect something you don't know? How can you protect something you've never seen?" he asked.

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Comments: 3

poland.jr Jun 03 2011 at 8:17 AM

I just passed my 63rd birthday and I spend some time reflecting on the past 50 to 55 years. What changes! Adults have traded vicarious lives of "reality" TV for reality itself. It is so much easier to watch Survivor or The Amazing Race than to take off and explore the local neighborhood.

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Tarrant Jun 03 2011 at 2:48 PM

The title of your comment made me think you were speaking of older people. My mother lives with us and until she moved in--the tv was on maybe once a week. She watches a great deal of TV. That actually has caused more TV viewing by one of our children--on weekends and some evenings she will sit with my mother and watch TV with her. Sometimes it is HGTV and talk shows other times it is kid shows. On weekends the pair of them happily watch way too much Disney channel. Oddly enough, at my mother's

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last check up, my mother's doctor said that watching the Disney shows with my daughter was good for her as they are faster paced and make her think and keep more in touch, slowing dementia. Growing up, my family did the tv background noise thing, with soap operas, game shows, the news, prime time tv. On the other hand, we spent hours outside and TV shows generally weren't of interest to kids, with the exception of family prime time TV.