You asked: "How engage the next generation of conservationists?" Your question of "how" comes from reason, and wants an answer from reason. But to engage the next generation in nature and conservation, we must use our intuitions, and guide them to use theirs. Indigenous people lived in nature with a thinking paradigm using intuition as primary, while our predominanat thinking paradigm, the academic/scientific, uses reason as primary and dominanat, and considers intuition as nice but not necessary. Reason got us in this mess, and used as primary and dominant, won't get us out. Through reason, we cannot engage in the natural world, nor encourage others to. Reason breaks wholes down into quantities, while the natural world can be experienced only as an organic whole that is a totality of qualities composed of totalities of qualities. When reason depicts natural organisms and environments as quantities, they look expendable. Intuition, alternatively, gathers information from the senses in terms of wholes, including organic wholes that are totalities of qualities. Intuition perceives that each organism and environment is a totality of qualities that is nature, and nature is each of her organisms and environments. Additionally, when we use the academic/scientific thinking paradigm, we agree to rely on experts and expert information, while understanding and resolving problems in the natural world require wisdom and the wise. Reason brings only expertise; only intuition can bring wisdom. "...when paradigms change, the world itself changes with them." (Thomas Kuhn) Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Einsteing used a thinking paradigm that applied intuition in the first instance of perception (when they discovered the "what" of phenomena). Secondarily they used reason to "do the math" (to derive the "how" of the phenomena). Ultimately, they reapplied intuition in a strategy called the "bootstrap" by philosopher Clark Glymour. With this thinking paradigm, we can each help others use their intuitions to discover the "what" of nature, and their reasoning to derive the "how" - the intricate interconnections that form nature as a whole, interconnections in which we all participate, even if we never venture outdoors. Ultimately, in the third stage of thinking, when we help others apply their intuitions to the "what" and "how" of nature, the "why" of nature will emerge. With the "why" will come personal wisdom, and their connections to nature will be solidified in the process. ('Google' prewiredunplugged.com for a non-technical exposition of the thinking paradigm. Though addressed to Occupy Wall Street, it is generally applicable.)

In issue 3 Page 7 The photo of Lake Tanganyika needs serious recognition. Is it possible to get a print or download?

We will succeed when we couple today’s virtual environment with the real environment - when we bring our young into actual hands on programs. I am working locally with our Tampa Bay Watch in regard to its growing education effort - I call it “dirty hands, we feet” - as you point out “one kid at a time” is where it must start.

My daughter who is turning 6 is having a nature birthday party. She wanted to donate money to save the environment. We came upon The Nature Conservancy through our search. Instead of giving each friend a traditional party favor, she bought 25 trees for the Plant A Billion Trees campaign. She hopes to inspire her group of friends to do the same.