For the first time ever most of the world's population lives in cities. Meanwhile children in the US are spending less and less time outdoors and nature-based recreation in general is declining.   Consistently, "the environment" is given the lowest priority when it comes to issues people care about. Analyses of time series and correlations indicate that giving to conservation NGO's is associated with hiking experiences, which are trending down. Personal anecdotes tell the same story. The key scientific question is what type of outdoor and nature experience is required to make people care about conservation or environmental issues? Can we create a conservation ethic in the absence of natural history experience?