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Camping illustration
As you may know, IQ is a measure of cognitive intelligence and EQ assesses emotional intelligence, but what I call NQ determines nature intelligence. Put less formally, consider it outdoor smarts. There’s no standardized test for NQ, but adverse weather offers a real-world evaluation.
During our recent arctic freeze, I observed several people who, in an earlier era, would have been quickly eliminated from the human gene pool by virtue of their low NQ. Consider the lady I saw one evening in a parking lot. With the air temperature hovering near zero and a perilous wind chill, she bolted from her high-end SUV in sweatpants, flip-flops and a pullover — no hat, winter coat, gloves, boots, etc.
Was she in danger of freezing in the parking lot? No, it took all of 30 seconds to sprint from her vehicle to the shelter of a nearby store. Nonetheless, her choice of attire was abjectly clueless. What if her vehicle had broken down that night in a less populated area, or if, during one of her dashes to safety, she slipped and was knocked unconscious or otherwise immobilized? In such circumstances, people can and do perish.
It doesn’t take long to become frost bitten and hypothermic in a minus 25 wind chill, particularly in flip flops and a hoodie. The cold, along with a variety of other forces of nature, can kill, but you’d never know it watching some humans in life-threatening weather conditions or in the wilderness. Many who are naive about the natural world assume technology and human safety nets will always extract them from any jam they might bumble into while in the great outdoors. Consider the tourists who, as the sea receded prior to the disastrous Indonesian tsunami years ago, rushed out in glee on the “new” beach only to be swept away to their deaths when the water returned in force.
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Hiking Unprepared
While on my periodic backpacking treks into wilderness areas, I encounter this mentality too frequently. I recall a couple and their two preteen children who told me they were hiking to the top of an 11,000-foot peak in the Rockies. I met them on my way down from a weeklong foray into the wilds where I encountered freezing nights, high winds, sudden storms and treacherous footing. They had on shorts, tennis shoes, T-shirts with windbreakers wrapped around their waists and no visible supplies except two water bottles in hand. This is the level of outfitting one would encounter at Disney World, which is where such folks seem to imagine they are much of the time.
These sorts of individuals may not have a low IQ, but they clearly suffer from a low NQ — nature quotient. They seemingly harbor the illusion that, should an accident or adverse conditions occur, help will be along directly. Well, maybe that’s true at the Dells, but we’ve witnessed many accounts of low NQ types getting lost or stranded and, in some instances, perishing while in wilder locales.
One recent summer, a healthy young couple died of dehydration and heat stroke within sight of a convenience store while on a day hike in Arizona. They underestimated the heat and overestimated their water, meaning they failed to understand or respect their natural environment. Dozens of similar accounts emerged in the American southwest this past summer, one of the hottest on record.
Nature can be stunningly beautiful and spiritually uplifting, but it can also kill you. We all live on a planet, not just in a living room, office, automobile or theme park. As such, we do well to learn about and pay attention to nature’s rules.
Those who ignore them may be in for a painful lesson, or even a fatal one.
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