Are your children eco ignorant?

Recently Daryl Hannah joined Sir Ranulph Fiennes at London Zoo to launch the results of  an Airbus survey exploring children's perceptions of nature. The actress and environmentalist announced the results of the  “Airbus Bio-Index” – a survey of more than 10,000 children and young people aged 5-18  from ten countries worldwide, conducted as part of the aircraft manufacturer's work supportive of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The countries included were  the UK, France, Germany, Spain, USA, Japan, China, Mexico, Singapore, and Australia.

Many of these countries could be considered first world and Westernised. How different would findings be here in South Africa?

The Airbus Bio-Index shows there is work to be done. In many countries, the next generation has a reputation for being glued to the virtual world and the survey highlights the implications this has for the  future of the real world. When asked to rank what was most important to them, ten times more children ranked watching TV or playing computer games first compared to those who chose saving the  environment (40 percent and 4 percent respectively). And while species extinction rates are estimated to be up to 1,000 times the natural rate, only 9 percent ranked looking after animals as most important; 15  percent did not know what “endangered species” implied.

Airbus backed Convention on Biological Diversity's Green Wave, which on 22 May passed through the world’s time zones creating a wave of activity from east to west around the planet.  Green Wave is designed to educate young people about the crucial role biodiversity – the rich variety of all life on earth – plays in our lives and our futures.

Hannah said: “Biodiversity loss is a global crisis and it's of crucial importance that we do all we can to  nurture our environment back to health. The Airbus Bio-Index will help inform and empower the future  generation of environmental champions to take bold and effective action”.

On a positive note, the results show that children still enjoy spending time outdoors with almost a third (30  percent) saying it is their favourite pastime. Sir Ranulph himself knows a thing or two about the great  outdoors. And the man, considered by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the greatest living  adventurer, hopes The Green Wave can help to inspire young people to explore the rich variety of life  around them.

One topic which seems to grab the attention of a generation immersed in technology is how the study and imitation of nature's best ideas can help to solve human challenges. Biomimicry – biologically inspired  engineering – is one of the reasons Airbus is backing The Green Wave campaign. More than 70 percent of  those surveyed knew that the aviation industry had been inspired by the natural environment. And if they could themselves copy one skill from nature, 66 percent would choose to fly like a bird. Yet when asked  which type of animal or plant they would most like to save, only nine percent said they would most like to  save birds, with mammals such as snow leopards coming top with 50 percent followed by reptiles with 23 percent. Only six percent chose plants and less than one percent opted for insects.

Are we as South Africans doing enough to educate our children and future generations about the importance of nature, where our produce comes from? Or are we raising a generation that believes that food comes pre packaged and has no concept of what biodiversity is?