The RSA / FSC Event - Reaching into the Outside

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Field Studies Council, we gather a distinguished panel of public thinkers to project 70 years into the future, predicting the emerging drivers which will most affect people’s physical connections with the outdoor environment. Children’s Commissioner Dr Maggie Atkinson and environmental commentator Jonathan Porritt CBE join a distinguished panel.

"Without a feel for the texture and function of the natural world, without an intensity of engagement almost impossible in the absence of early experience, people will not devote their lives to its protection.” George Monbiot

If we agree that people will really only become invested in the care and conservation of nature if they are given opportunities to connect meaningfully with it from an early age – how is this likely to happen in the future, given socio-economic trends towards urbanisation, consumerisation, widening inequalities, and sedentary, screen-based lifestyles?

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Field Studies Council - a pioneering charity which was founded at the Natural History Museum in 1943 in response to the needs of children who were being evacuated from wartime London and which is now one of the UK’s leading outdoor education charities. To mark the occasion, we have gathered four thinkers from a range of different fields and perspectives to address the crucial issue of how best we meet the needs of future generations to support them to become custodians and beneficiaries of the natural environment.

Speakers:Dr Jo Twist, CEO at the UKIE (Association of UK Interactive Entertainment);Dr Maggie Atkinson, Children’s Commissioner for England; Jonathon Porritt CBE, environmental writer, broadcaster and co-founder of Forum for the Future; Professor Kate Jones, Chair of Ecology and Biodiversity at University College London.

Chair: Matthew Taylor, RSA chief executive.