Bermuda's youth.

Curator of the Aquarium Natural History Museum Dr. Wolfgang Sterrer claimed this weekend that an increasingly urban society was leaving children bereft of natural surroundings essential to their developement.

"I am more and more convinced that in today's increasingly urbanised, fully-employed and fact-paced society, two processes that are fundamental to the healthy development of a young generation are falling apart,'' he said.

These were the benefits children derived from a natural environment and parental support.

"Artificial environments and technology should complement but cannot substitute for a child's experience of climbing a tree or exploring a tide pool,'' Dr.

Sterrer said.

His comments came during a speech at a Bermuda Planning Association meeting to discuss the future sustainablity of Bermuda.

Also at the public meeting, organised as a run up to Earth Day on April 22, were guest speakers: former president of the Bank of Bermuda Mr. Donald Lines and Keep Bermuda Beautiful president Ms Kendaree Burgess-Fairn.

Dr. Sterrer added it was known that inner cities fostered drug use, violence and social disintegration and that hospital patients healed faster with a leafy view than an urban one.

"Environment is what we interact with and as we mold and change it to make ourselves at home, it will in turn shape us and our children,'' he said.

But Bermuda's youth were not the only ones at risk if the Island continued to destroy its scarce natural resources, he warned.

The Island's economy was also dependent on the health of the environment.

By importing almost everything, Bermuda left other countries to bear the environmental costs of pollution and landscape defiguration. Some 2,000 square miles, he said, were used to feed the Island's residents.

Dr. Sterrer said Bermuda also was in a precarious position.

"Bermuda's economy rests squarely on the renewable resource of its natural beauty and social health,'' he said.

While tourism and international business were among the cleanest industries, Bermuda's economic success could put the environment at risk.

"Natural beauty especially of a tiny island, is fragile and may easily succumb to the very economic success it has engendered,'' he said. "There is simply no way around the equation that the price of open-ended economic growth is the continuing degradation of nature.'' Dr. Sterrer pointed out a number of ways the Island could guarantee itself a sustainable future. These included: Working towards a decrease in population; Curbing consumption; Diversifying the economy and become more self-sufficient and; Strengthening local industries such as agriculture, fishing and horticulture.

On a global level, he said, human consumption of natural resources now equaled the enormous impact of natural erosive forces -- wind, water and ice.

Man is beginning to influence oceans and climate to the same degree as natural forces did during the Ice Age, Dr. Sterrer claimed.

A felled tree, he said, was worth a few thousand dollars while a living tree provided an estimated $1.6 million worth of oxygen, air purification and soil stabilisation.

Instead it would cost man $9 million to create air, water and food for one person for a year -- resources nature provides for free.