SOMETIMES environmentalists and conservationists are accused of wanting to take us back in time – to a world with no cars or roads, where flower-filled meadows are cut by hand; an idyllic, fantasy point in time where nature and people live in harmony.

Perhaps, environmentalists are seen as Luddites in the way that members of the older generation are perceived as always thinking life was better when they were young!

Like all things, there is a need to find a balance; a middle ground. That is what environmentalists need to do – but it’s also what society needs to do.

We should recognise all the benefits that technology brings us – healthcare and longer living, higher incomes, communication and so on.

But clearly, not everything about modern technology is good for us or for our environment. Is it better that we can now make the shortest of journeys in our cars rather than walk for 20 minutes, while as a nation we are struggling with obesity?

As we spend more time on our devices, we appear more connected, yet we may be less capable of communicating in the ‘real’ world and have less time for ‘real’ things.

Just watch a talk like Adam Alters’ on TED (on the internet!) ‘Why our screens make us less happy’ to realise how much time is being ‘stolen’ by some of our favourite technology.

What I struggle with is how little significance we seem to place on our environment, especially in the school curriculum.

Our environment provides all the essentials for our physical welfare – our air, our food, our water. Then there are things like climate change and the devastating impacts of flooding.

Yet understanding the role of the environment in our daily lives is not core to our daily teaching. It is taught as part of other subjects but does it have the significance it warrants, considering the essential role it plays in our lives? Some school children may be lucky enough to go on a single school trip into the countryside in a whole year.

A recent article highlighted this with the headline ‘Three-quarters of UK children spend less time outdoors than prison mates’.

In a poll it was found that ‘a fifth of children did not play outside at all on an average day’.

Meanwhile, a government report published in February states that ‘more than one in nine children had not set foot in a park, forest, beach or any other natural environment for at least a year’. Also: ‘Experts warn that active play is essential to the health and development, but that parents’ fears, lack of green space and the lure of digital technology is leading youngsters to lead enclosed lives’.

Building evidence shows how the natural environment can make us feel better and have significant mental health benefits, especially important to consider as increasing amounts of stress and depression affects in our society.

So, what do we think of the fact that our children don’t play out as much and don’t have the same connection with their environment? Do we recognise that these are our choices? Do we even see that we have changed the levels of freedom our children have?

David Attenborough said: "No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced".

And so while there is a risk to physical and mental health in the immediate short-term, we also need to think that if future generations do not have a connection with their environment, they will not search for the middle ground.

They will not think about the impact on their landscape, the wildlife that lives there and ultimately the knock-on impacts on them.