Environment and Humans a Natural Clash

We went back home to Kansas City this past weekend. I needed to do some research on the book I'm writing. We waited until my husband had a day off on Good Friday to make it a long weekend and so we could see friends and family all in one trip.

As we've learned to do here, we had numerous errands to run, trying to make the most out of a single trip.

I had been in the metropolitan area for only a couple of hours when I told my friend, Pris, that we had seen more traffic that day than we would probably in a year in Arkansas.

My mom and I used to marvel at some of the things my aunt said, after having lived out here in the wilderness for awhile. It seems, sometimes, she felt insulated from the rest of the world.

When I returned on our trip home, I felt that as well, after having lived here only 9 months. It's easy, when you only see your family - and maybe a handful of people - when you go to town, to believe that the only things happening is what's going on in our own little piece of the world.

I have to work harder to obtain information here about what's happening in the rest of the world - and that includes news about the environment.

It's easy when you're surrounded by natural beauty everyday to think everything's going to be ok for the planet.

And then you go to a mid-sized city and are once again awed by the amount of vehicles polluting the environment and also the waste. I wondered how many people a week, for example, used the disposable cups in our hotel room. We ate out all weekend of course, and saw a ton of styrofoam containers going home with people.

There's a lot of questions swirling about what "going green" means.

We all get involved in our own little worlds.

For me, coming out of that and doing things to help the bigger picture is what going green is all about.

On a scary side note, here's an example of how nature is clashing with development in the Kansas City metro. Coyotes are becoming ever more brave and attacking dogs in backyards. Here in the mountains, we're ever aware of this danger - and others, including bears and big cats, but to think a pack of coyotes would even jump fences for a Maltese or Jack Russell?

To my friends in Kansas City, especially in southern Overland Park, watch your animals:

http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/543755.html