Posted on 05/11/2006 9:34:53 AM PDT by Renfield
Are future national park trips for America’s youth likely to be on-line virtual experiences rather than the real thing? A University of Illinois at Chicago ecologist says there may be cause for concern.
Oliver Pergams, research assistant professor in biological sciences at UIC, reports in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Environmental Management that a rise in at-home entertainment activity, such as playing video games and surfing the Internet, corresponds with a decline, in per capita terms, in visits to U.S. national parks. Rising oil prices showed a strong association as well. The turnaround began in 1988 after a steady, half-century rise in park visits.
Pergams, a former commodities trader with a longtime interest in macroeconomics and international finance, used Statistical Abstracts data and special data acquired from Mediamark Research to conduct his study, using rank-order correlation and multilinear regression analytical tools.
“Many of the variables were highly significantly correlated with this decline in national park visitation,” said Pergams. “Multilinear regression apportions which variables are the most significant in affecting the outcome.”
While more than two dozen variables were tested, Pergams said video games, home movie rentals, going out to movies, Internet use, and rising fuel prices explained almost 98 percent of the decline. “It’s fairly stunning,” he said, but cautions that correlation is not the same as causation.
“This is no smoking gun,” Pergams said. “We’re showing statistically that the rise in use of these various types of media, as well as oil prices, is so highly correlated with the decline in national park visits that there is likely to be some association.”
Pergams ruled out variables such as family income, age, the recent rise in foreign travel, or crowding in the parks as major factors. These variables were tested and shown not to correlate nearly as strongly as home entertainment and fuel prices.
“My concern is that young people are simply not going outdoors or to natural areas, but are instead playing video games, going on the Internet or watching movies,” Pergams said. “My longer-term concern is that I don’t see how this trend, if it is in fact true, could be good for conservation efforts. But if the trends are correct, perhaps public awareness will lead to some solutions.”
Patricia Zaradic, a conservation biologist with the Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, Pa., co-authored the paper.
Since most national park visits are a vacation or an all day activity, the above reasons seem to be conveninent fodder to rail todays youth. I know that schools used to go on these kinds of trips and many no longer do for example, which has nothing to do with couch potatos
Every trip the family and I take includes a national park. Last year we did 3 parks(Yellowstone, Arches and Mesa Verde).
Some parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite have discouraged visits.....
Forget the National Parks aspect. The issue is "outdoors and active" vs "indoors, fat and unaware". Children (and adults, for that matter) need to be outdoors. Video games are the Devil's curse.
People should know how to produce their own food, how to track animals, how to identify trees and forbs, and how to recognize a whether a landscape is healthy or perturbed. Indoor sloth and indolence are poison to humans.
LOL, video games are not the curse of the devil.
I do agree with you, however, that kids should be spending more time outdoors. If there is a problem its with lazy parents letting the TV raise the kids for them.
Actually, the Strategy Page has documented some very useful "Nintendo" skills that carried over to warfare:
The Geek Advantage
January 18, 2006: American troops appear to have a considerable advantage because most of them grew up playing video games and using PCs. More and more military equipment uses computers, or are basically electronic gadgets. American troops require a lot less time to learn how to use this stuff, and tend to be very good with it. This extends from fire control systems in armored vehicles, to new radios, electronic rifle sights and training systems (which are very similar to those video games.) Many other countries have to spend a lot more time training their troops to use this stuff, and the proficiency of the troops is never particularly good. This effect is often seen when this high tech American equipment is provided to foreign troops who didn’t have such an electronic childhood.
Another big American advantage here is that U.S. troops can quickly get into the computerized training systems and further enhance their combat skills. A major problem with computerized simulators and wargames is the time it takes to learn to use them. But most American troops see this stuff as just another computer game, and get right into it. Whoever thought all those hours spend playing videogames would prove so useful on the battlefield.
I'll take skill with a rifle (which I have) over skill with a video game, anyday.
I challenge you to a duel.
/Duel Challenge
Don't forget the fees keep going up to see a NATIONAL park. With the price of gas, price of the entrance fee, and the huge price of lodging, no wonder many families are foregoing the national park system.
LOL! I am cursed then.
People should know how to produce their own food, how to track animals, how to identify trees and forbs, and how to recognize a whether a landscape is healthy or perturbed.
Depends on the area you live in. If you are in suburbia or the big city, people should learn urban survival skills, such as how to enter a car late at night. Far more useful life skills than knowing how to plant an ear of corn.
Indoor sloth and indolence are poison to humans.
For some maybe. I am indoors prob 90% of my time. Yet I am neither slothful nor lazy. I workout at a gym at work, I drive my Vette, and I spend upwards of 50-70 hours/week in my lab.
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