Within the space of a few decades, the way children in developed countries understand and experience nature has changed radically. Today, kids are aware of the global threats to the environment, but their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is fading. A kid today can likely tell you about the Amazon rainforest, but not about the last time he or she explored the woods in solitude, or lay in a field listening to the wind and watching the clouds move.

This book explores the increasing divide beween the young and the natural world, and the environmental, social, psychological, and spiritual implications of that change. It also describes the accumulating research that reveals the necessity of contact with nature for healthy child--and adult--development. It explores an alternative path to the future, including some of the most innovative environment-based school programs; a reimagining and redesign of the urban environment; ways of addressing the challenges besetting enviornmental groups; and ways that society can help reclaim nature as part of the spiritual development of children and the spiritual fulfillment of adults.