Why We’re Forgetting What ‘Nature’ Really Means

How to avoid environmental amnesia

VP Photo Studio/Shutterstock

Places that make you feel “in nature,” such as parks, beaches, and campgrounds, are likely different than those that your parents or grandparents would’ve cited.

This is what University of Washington psychology professor Peter Kahn calls “environmental generational amnesia”—the idea that each generation perceives the environment into which it’s born, no matter how developed, urbanized, or polluted, as the norm. And so what each generation comes to think of as “nature” is relative, based on what they’re exposed to.