nature-deficit disorder

n.

A yearning for nature, or an ignorance of the natural world, caused by a lack of time spent outdoors, particularly in rural settings. Also: nature deficit disorder.

Example Citations:

Now a nonprofit educational enterprise, the manor is among the New York-area farms attracting locavores, green-minded students and urbanites suffering from nature-deficit disorder who yearn to raise produce and livestock for a day, a week or longer.

—Kathryn Shattuck, " City Slickers Take to the Crops, With Song: http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/travel/28farmwork.html," The New York Times, May 28, 2010

Revealing the inspiration behind his latest epic, Avatar, legendary filmmaker James Cameron recently described himself as a "nature geek", and said modern humans were suffering a degree of "nature deficit disorder". It may not be a medically recognised condition, but "nature deficit disorder" is a concept gaining traction with childhood and behavioural experts around the world.

—Peter Ker, " More fertile imagination: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/more-fertile-imagination-20100319-qm8t.html," The Age, March 20, 2010

Earliest Citation:

Many members of my generation grew into adulthood taking nature's gifts for granted; we assumed (when we thought of it at all) that generations to come would receive these gifts. But something has changed. Now we see the emergence of what I have come to call nature-deficit disorder. This term is by no means a medical diagnosis, but it does offer a way to think about the problem and the possibilities — for children, and for the rest of us as well.

—Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods, Algonquin Books, January 1, 2005 (approx)

Notes: Related Words:

agritourist

foliologist

forest bathing

haycation

leaf peeper

sedentary death syndrome

Categories:

Diseases and Syndromes

Lifestyles