Julian Lennon is a Grammy-Award nominated musician, best-selling author and accomplished photographer. His new children's book is "Love the Earth" (the third in a trilogy from Sky Horse Publishing). Follow him on Instagram @Julespictureplace. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

(CNN) People from every generation have looked back on the era when they grew up with fondness. I do too. Yet my feeling is now tinged with melancholy that the youth of today are growing up in a far more difficult world.

Julian Lennon

Complexity is everywhere. The environment is threatened. This week, for example, we learned from a UN science policy report -- written by 145 experts from 50 countries -- that one million of the planet's eight million species are threatened with extinction by humans. It is the most comprehensive assessment of global nature loss ever, they said.

At the same time, young people are in constant interaction with social media, the effects of which have yet to be fully understood -- and the incessant distraction of the internet poses challenges previously unknown. Thinking back, I can't imagine having been forced to see posts on Facebook or Instagram about everyday anxieties like parties I may not have been invited to when I was a boy, or ex-girlfriends posting images of their new loves. Sheer torture!

But we can help our young people as they face, and eventually take responsibility in, this complicated world. An antidote to all the chaos and dreadful noise is Mother Nature. Going back to our roots replaces complexity with simplicity, social media with silence, and connects us to our most basic selves.

Nothing helps ground us more than being outdoors -- whether it's just playing in the trees (as I used to do growing up in the lush English and Welsh countryside), swimming in the ocean or a lake, or just being at a local park.

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