Is it important for people to spend time outdoors and to learn to appreciate the natural environment?

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
I spent some part of every year at the farm until I was twelve or thirteen years old. The life that I led there was full of charm and so is the memory of it yet. I can call back the faint odors of wildflowers, the sheen of rain-washed foliage, the clatter of raindrops when the wind shook the trees, and the far-off hammering of woodpeckers. I can call back the prairieand its loneliness and peace.
Adapted from Mark Twain, My Autobiography
Assignment:
Is it important for people to spend time outdoors and to learn to appreciate the natural environment? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.