Less Screen Time, More Green Time

A proposed settlement of up to $17 billion that raises questions about outdoor learning — and a real answer to whether hope actually works.

A few mornings ago, I was standing in my kitchen in Felton, scrolling through headlines about the climate, while my youngest sat at the table with a tablet. Neither of us was looking up. I noticed the familiar heaviness settle in, the kind that makes me want to either freeze or do something drastic, and I noticed that I was modeling exactly the posture I'd hate for my kids to learn.

Then my son looked up and asked if we could walk down to see whether the creek was running. We went. Nothing got solved on that walk, but I came back lighter, and not because I'd been reassured. I'd been handed something small and real to do with my hands and my attention.

That's the tension behind this week's conversation: screens on one side, the weight of the news on the other, and the question of what actually moves a person, or a kid, toward action.

This is Part 2 of my conversation with Karen Cowe and Craig Strang of Ten Strands. If you haven't read last week's letter, start there — it's the story of AB 2158, now held in the suspense file of the Senate Appropriations Committee and not moving forward this legislative session.

This week Craig walked me through something most people haven't connected yet: California's attorney general, Rob Bonta, led a coalition of states in a lawsuit against Meta over intentional harm to kids on its platforms. The proposed settlement, pending court approval, would pay up to $17 billion to states over ten years. Karen and Craig discuss what this could mean for outdoor learning.

The proposed settlement would pay up to $17 billion to states over ten years. California would receive $1.5-2.1 billion in total if a court approves it, not that amount each year. These funds are not a windfall earmarked for outdoor programs. Craig's own words: "it's not a huge amount of money, but hey — we want ten million dollars for a pilot... ten million out of a billion and a half seems like it ought to be reasonable."  That's the honest version of hope: not "the money's coming," but "there's now a real door to knock on."

Karen's line for all of it: "Less screen time, more green time."

The conversation that meant the most to me, though, was about hope itself. I asked Karen and Craig about a study getting attention right now arguing that hope doesn't actually motivate change — that fear does, that history's big shifts came from fear, not optimism. Karen's answer leaned on a line from David Orr: hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up. At Ten Strands, the students in their youth programs don't start out hopeful — they start out overwhelmed by everything they're watching happen around them. What changes that isn't reassurance. It's being handed something real to do.

Find one thing this week — not a donation, not a share, an actual action — that fits your own expertise and do a deep dive on it. That's the advice Craig gave listeners directly, and it's the same shape of advice Ten Strands gives the teenagers in their programs.

Listen to this week's episode of Hopeful by Nature wherever you get your podcasts.

— Scott

Wildward Institute supports organizations, educators, and parents building meaningful relationships between young people and the outdoors. Learn more at wildwardinstitute.net.

Resources mentioned in this episode: caoutdoorlearning.org · tenstrands.org (California Environmental Literacy Initiative, Climate Ready Schools Coalition, Seeds to Solutions, California Schoolyard Forest System)

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