Besides being an opportunity to stock up on neckties, slippers, and power tools, Father's Day is a good time for the dads among us to reflect on that delicate balance between life's greatest blessing and the lifelong responsibility that is fatherhood. As a wise man once said, "It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father."

No, operating instructions are not included with your first-born, but somehow most of us figure it out anyway, perhaps adapting good parenting skills we learned from our own dads and doing the best we can.

Here in the U.S., though, dads face a new challenge. We're raising the first generation of kids who are unhealthier than their parents were. Childhood obesity and diabetes rates are climbing, and it's not just because of Happy Meals. Kids today spend an average of 7.5 hours "plugged in" to electronic media every single day (including weekends). Eighty percent of American children live in urban areas with limited or no access to safe outdoor spaces where they can play or simply experience some little part of nature.

Being indoors and glued to a screen all day not only makes our kids ...

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Coming Clean is the blog of Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.