Cold fever

Zaradic of the US Environmental Leadership Programme, compared records of visits to dozens of national parks, state parks and other public land across the US, Japan and Spain. They also analysed US licence applications to hunt deer, fish and shoot wildfowl, as well as surveys on the popularity of outdoor pursuits such as camping and hiking. They found that the popularity of almost all activities peaked in the 1980s and then went into sharp decline. This drop reverses the trend seen in the postwar decades, which saw a boom in the popularity of these activities. Only the number of day hikes has increased. The Spanish data did not show a clear trend, but had been gathered over a relatively short period. The researchers said: " All major lines of evidence point to a general and fundamental shift away from people's participation in nature-based recreation. The cultural shift away from nature recreation appears to extend outside the US, to at least Japan, and the decline appears to have begun 1981–1991. " They believe their findings could represent a general shift away from interest in nature and that " if this is the case, it is of enormous importance ". Contact with the environment produces more eco-friendly behaviour, they say, and people must be exposed to nature as children if they are to care about it as adults. With fewer adults spending time outdoors, children are less likely to experience it. " Declining nature participation has crucial implications for conservation efforts. We think it is probable that any major decline in the value placed on natural areas and experiences will greatly reduce the value people place on biodiversity conservation. Accordingly, it becomes less likely that attempts to raise public awareness of the current biodiversity crisis [will succeed]. " But at least the Bush plans for Alaska carry some caveats: 90,000 acres of old-growth reserve is out-of-bounds to loggers and 47,000 acres of vulnerable limestone formations called karst remain protected. And the Forest Service has said it will consult with Indian tribes to protect and maintain sacred sites within the forest. Mice catching cold provided an irresistible story — and headline — earlier this month. Work by British scientists created transgenic mice that were susceptible to the many strains of rhinovirus that only infect humans and chimpanzees, opening up new routes to therapies. " Up until now it has not been possible to …