Right now most other eco-blogs are focused on two things: the Beijing Olympics and Back-to-school stuff.  But with the sun shining and the warm, sweet breeze blowing pollen in my face and aggravating my allergies I find my mind wandering to happier thoughts than smoggy China or a busload of kids sentenced to a whole year of arithmetic and dentention.  This is it!  Summer will be ending and we have nothing but classrooms and office walls in our future.  So, for the next week we're going to continue our theme on simply getting outside.  (While you still can!)

"So what's the big deal?" you might think.  Well, let me give you a little background.  See, I was out shopping a few weeks ago and there was a big display of HDTVs all hooked-up to a feed from a Blu-Ray demo of Planet Earth by the Discovery Channel people.  The camera zooms over the oceans, dives into jungles - it really is amazing.  My kid looked at me looking at the TVs and said, "Daddy, is that a video game?  How can I play?"

He certainly had a point.  When you see things that you're so far removed from, things that are so far away and on such a scale you don't really understand it, it is so abstract that it might as well be a video game.  Like ice caps melting.  Like our upper atmosphere.  Like where the heck oil comes from.  It's one thing to understand something you're told.  Experiencing something first-hand is another matter entirely.

Hunting for bugs in your backyard will give your kids a completely different experience than watching a documentary on ladybugs on television.  They'll be connected.  They'll form their own understanding.  They'll learn to appreciate the world around them.  No narrator or wide-angle lens required.  Same goes for you, grown-ups.  Go for a walk.  Get your pants dirty.  Dust-off your old baseball mitt and go get some sun.

To save our planet we have to start in our own backyards.  But we can't save our backyards if we never spend any time in them.  So get out and play.  This is where it all begins...

» Discovery Channel