WriterByNature.com

I heard a report that Texas is the largest producer of carbon emissions in the US. If Texas were a country, it would be 7th largest greenhouse gas producer in the world.

My respect for Texas-based nature writer Wendee Holtcamp reaches new depths. Wendee is a scientist who writes with passion, like Rachel Carson. Texas is about being larger than life, including driving the largest vehicles possible.

I’m truly impressed that Wendee thrives in an environment that is officially deaf to what naturalists hold dear.

Texas is not alone. Our entire country is obsessed with consumption. We have been taught that consumption reflects wealth. The fact that increasing consumption is unsustainable and it has already hit diminishing returns seems unimportant. It makes no sense. But living in and with nature is based on a different way of thinking. You can’t learn to love nature if you’re cooped up inside a car or a shopping mall.

The day after Thanksgiving, everyone rushed to the huge mall near here. The stores must have been giving away merchandise. Cars lined the roads for miles in every direction. I literally could not leave my driveway. Fortunately, I could walk where I had to go.

I understand some people find shopping satisfying in the same way I enjoy discovering fresh morels. But all those cars spewing emissions compound what we know is a problem. Shoppers could have chosen to take the many busses and trains offering service to the mall.

There are solutions. But changing attitudes is daunting. My mom used to say that if you change a person’s behavior, their attitude will follow. That was a long time ago, before technology increased the pace of our lives.

Still, I have faith that enough people will make the choices necessary to preserve the planet that sustains us.