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Life on Land pp 1–12Cite as

Children and Nature: Developing Care for the Land

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Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

Definitions

Nature:

The more-than-human world that is not artifactual and/or technological (Frumkin et al. 2017). Thus, nature includes trees, plants, grasses, rocks, soils, sand, water, animals, sky, stars, and other such constituents and landscapes. With a different focus than that provided in this entry, humans can also be considered natural.

Care for the land:

A human interdependent relationship with nature, grounded in reciprocity, affection, respect, responsibility, and responsiveness. This definition integrates Leopold’s (1949/1970) land ethic with traditional theorizing on an ethic of care (Gilligan 1982; Noddings 1984).

Environmental generational amnesia:

A specific form of the shifting baselines problem (Soga and Gaston 2018) wherein children construct a conception of what is environmentally normal based on the natural world they encounter in childhood. The crux is that with each ensuing generation, the amount of environmental degradation can and usually does increase, but...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology & School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Peter H. Kahn Jr.

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Thea Weiss

Authors
  1. Peter H. Kahn Jr.
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  2. Thea Weiss
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter H. Kahn Jr. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. European School of Sustainability, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Center for Neuroscience & Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

  3. Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo, Brazil

    Luciana Brandli

  4. Istinye University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Pinar Gökcin Özuyar

  5. International Centre for Thriving, University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Tony Wall

Section Editor information

  1. No affiliation provided

    Adriana Consorte McCrea

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Kahn, P.H., Weiss, T. (2019). Children and Nature: Developing Care for the Land. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Life on Land. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71065-5_43-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71065-5_43-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71065-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71065-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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