what childhood experiences triggered your interest in protecting the environment?

Question

was there a particular event: a school assignment, an overheard conversation, or perhaps your own observations of nature?

was there a certain person: a friend, an author, or maybe a teacher who got you thinking about how to protect what we still have?

was there a television program, or a book or article you sought out on your own that got you thinking green?

who or what do you credit with instilling in you an appreciation for the natural world? (don't forget the where, when and how!)

Answer 1

My parents bought their house off plan so they were building the estate around us. From being tiny we used to play in the fields and the quarry. The quarry was amazing. There was an older lad called Mark, who used to make sure that the little ones could get in (us) we used to make dens, climb trees, play at the edge of the quarry.

The flora and fauna were incredible, really rich with frogs, newts, rabbits, voles, foxes, birds and cuckoo spit. I know weird combination but I loved cuckoo spit as a child. If you sat patiently the little insect inside would move around and sometimes crawl out.

We used to take the pith out of the center of reeds and take the bark off old bits of wood with our pen knifes and have these trophies in our dens.

In hot summers the water level would drop and we would slide around in the mud on the edges and taunt the same two anglers for years on the far side of the bank by putting our sandwiches in the water to attract the fish away from them.

There was a disused railway line we used as a short cut from the quarry, along this we would find loads of wild fruits such as wild strawberries, apples and blackberries. This is where my fascination for wild foods has come from.

It broke our hearts when they decided to use it as land fill. But that had its joys too, even though they drained it there was still big pools of water left for us to play in, loads of fish and amphibians. We used to slide down the slag into these pools to catch fish by hand.

The tip brought loads of new opportunities to us as kids, free bikes, bits for making go carts, treasures for our tree dens. In winter we would raid the tip for car bonnets (why they were there I don't know) but we sat on them, made them into sledges when it snowed and came down the hills at break neck speed. Our horror stories always involved rats, because they frightened us when we disturbed them, they would dash off, they became the stuff of nightmares and legends.

A parent's worst nightmare but a kid's heaven. Yep it was the quarry for me.

Answer 2

Never really thought about it before, thank you for making me think about it.
I suppose it was as a child on the farm. You couldn't keep me indoors, I absolutely loved being outside. I would sleep out on the trampoline just so I could watch the stars and smell the night and hear the animals.
Seeing people litter the roadways made me angry as a 7 year old. I asked Dad why they did that, it looked so bad and the animals might eat it and get sick. He couldn't answer me then, but I noticed he never threw anything out the window again.
I was always respectful of nature and keeping her clean but my real awakening was when I opened up a Bottle Depot in my small home town. Recycling started a love affair with being Green and all the aspects that involves.
I run a Freecycle group, I created a website called AGreenerEarth, I expanded what my Bottle Depot recycled, I became much more widely read about the environment, composting, sustainable architecture, renewable energy, and so many more.
Thank You for a great question!!

Answer 3

Some children are very environmentally conscience .. this I suppose are instill in them from their parent/parents or may be their teachers.

They are clever enough to observe and see how the world is changing for the worse.

The climate for instance are changing considerably. Where trees were there are buildings coming up, more people more houses. When there are no trees there will be no rain, When there is no rain there will sickness and disease, plus the air is filled with things that shouldn't be there, I remember it should be clear and clean.

Now days people throw rubbish on the road and even spit on the road. They don't use the road side bins any more. I hope you know what I am trying to put across here.

Answer 4

The air I breathe and curiousity... I would have to give that almost full credit.

I can't say that the people around me were conscience in the green way of life, or that I was brought up to recycle reduce reuse. I was brought up to 'use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without' though, which made me appreciate the smallest of pleasures.

Nature was a mystery to me, going into the unknown, venturing in without knowing what to expect, a travelers voyage I suppose, seeing what was and what wasn't dangerous firsthand was so thrilling as a child.

I loved flowers as a kid, and when I saw them growing wild I wanted to put them in my yard, so I learned how to transplant and how to make trees a natural shade to protect them.

Just being outdoors, enjoying nature, seeing the clouds, appreciating the simple ways of the world, that was it for me, I wanted it to always be that way.

So later in years when I heard about tree diseases that could infest acres and acres I started taking notice of what and why and how I could check my own back yard for health, I've been lost every since....

I guess I had a calling to be an arborist, I need too look further into that someday.

Answer 5

My exposure to the natural world; my family went camping and my love for nature grew. I think my family instilled this love for the environment and I grew up in a large family (6 of us kids) where we had to make do as best as we could on second-hand stuff, etc., we had a garden and fruit trees. When I was a child my grandfather gave me one of his books about trees which I still have. I also discovered that I like to grow plants and have a green thumb which grew from childhood helping cut the flowers off the hydrangeas we had in the front yard and helping with the yard work. In my childhood my mother would make homemade Concord grape juice with a juicer on the stove, my parents would buy fruit from people who had fruit trees and freeze large amounts to use in the Winter months. My mother would spend hours putting food away. The milkman would deliver our raw milk to our house. I learned to be more in-touch with Earth and be grateful for all that grows on it naturally and loved going to the mountains or the beach (California= beautiful nature) through these childhood experiences. I grew lots of flowers later down the road about the time I was in H.S. I credit my grandparents and parents and myself for my own desire to learn more.

Answer 6

I was born and raised in a small village by the sea at 60 degree Meridian (way up north). My father was a nature lover, he hunted, fished, trapped and he did all that in the respect of nature and respect of animals. It was important for him to leave the woods as if it had not been touched by humans and important that none of the animals we hunted for food did not suffer. Only later in life, when I left my little village of 100 to go to college did I realize how city people disrespect the environment and don't understand the importance of a balance Eco-system.....they act like that cause for them nature is only a small park by the highway. Yes Nature is our mother and we owe her all the respect she deserves.

Answer 7

I had and have always loved Mr. John Denver most of my life, even though he is now passed away, he was a great singer/songwrighter and humanitarian...1943-1997

He did so much to introduce people to environmental aspects of the earth and the starving kids in Africa...

He sang his heart out in the 1970's with "Country Roads", "Rocky Mountain High", and many more ballads...

In subsequent years, Denver had a lower-profile career.
He had a few more U.S. Top 30 hits as the 1970s ended, but nothing to match the success he enjoyed earlier.

As his career slowed down, Denver focused more on humanitarian and sustainability work.

He worked extensively on conservation projects and helped to create the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Denver made public expression of his acquaintance or friendship with ecological-design researchers like Richard Buckminster Fuller and Amory Lovins, from whom he said he learned much.

He also founded his own environmental group, the Windstar Foundation in Aspen, Colorado.

Denver had a keen interest in the causes of and solution to hunger, and visited Africa during the 1980s to witness first-hand the suffering caused by starvation and to work with African leaders towards a solution.

His appearance and music sharply contrasted with those of his musical counterparts and his testimony was arguably the strongest influence on Congress.

Denver also toured Russia in 1985, met with Communist Party luminaries at every opportunity, and returned two years later to perform at a benefit concert for the victims of the Chernobyl accident.

In October 1992, he undertook a multiple city tour of Communist China, shaking hands and meeting with Communist Party leaders through every city.
Denver also released the "Homegrown" CD of his greatest hits to raise money for charities helping the homeless.

In 1994, he published his autobiography, Take Me Home.
In 1996, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and his "legend" status was ensured.

Answer 8

Living at my grandmother's house, where we drew water from a shallow well by bucket, used an outhouse, and ate from a garden in the backyard and squirrels and rabbits we hunted and read by kerosene lamp. This very basic approach to life stuck with me. I always knew we could do so much better with so much less.
I learned there were things in the woods that were good and beautiful from hickory nuts and berries to flowers and fungi that people never see. I learned the goodness of God's sun and the wonders of things like fresh, clean water and good rich earth.

Answer 9

I have been like this for as long as I can remember. I grew up camping (my parents first took me camping when I was 3 weeks old), always tried to reuse what we could and always remember someone I knew having a garden and how much fun I thought that was. I remember my grandmother even had a compost heap which I was fascinated by...the magic of turning coffee grinds and egg shells into food for her small but fun garden.

Answer 10

I would say that it really started when I met Eric three yrs ago. I was always into keeping the environment clean, but he opened my eyes to all the hidden gems of Nature and why we must do our part to protect them. He's extremely knowledgeable about the environment and I thank him for showing me what he knows :)

Answer 11

i would have to say my father. we had a garden in our backyard and every summer ate of the fresh produce. during the winter we ( brother and sister ) would look forward to setting up and taking care of the garden. not only that but we grew up in the city across from a park and my brother and i would play for hours in the woods on the trails riding our bikes and play army hide and seek and sleigh riding in the winter. my father also fished and every year we would go to ocean city Md. i remember he caught a female pregnant crab on his line and showed it to us and placed it back in the water, telling us of the importance of letting it live to sustain future generations of crabs. if we didn't we would not have them to eat or enjoy crabbing. he also told us of when he was a child the crabs were allot larger then the ones we have today . our large crabs would have been considered to small even for crab soup. it always just seemed to stick with me an idea so simple, dont take more than you need, he had a saying, waste not, want not. i cant believe such a simple philosophy isn't so widely accepted, and it breaks my heart to see kids now, not even want to go outside to play and not want to get dirty. it scares me to see that kids do not enjoy the outside as much as i did growing up. it makes me fear for the future, how else can you love nature if you don,t go and enjoy it