Kansas may have its issues (conservative senators that are not always best for the environment) but I like it. I used to hate driving across Kansas because there was nothing to look at, just farmland. However, I was recently driving through Kansas and I decided that I like the nothingness. It is nice to see minimal development across an entire state and there are wind turbines to look at along I-70 now. The main area of development is on the east side of the state, but the entire west side is mainly farmland and prairie. I don’t know what has changed my point of view. Perhaps it was either my change of heart for development or living in Kansas for four years while going to school at K-state. It could also be my shift to minimalism lately.
While living in Kansas I always felt there was a big battle between conservatives and environmentalists. Yet when I think about it, the minimal development does impact the environment. Kansas is almost all farmland. While that farmland uses resources and pesticides, it is still not all cement and big buildings, etc. It also means there are fewer people, which results in less development, less consumption, less resource usage. The towns that are along I-70 are often small and most of the development is centered around the highway and travelers coming off the highway. It would be interesting to see what Kansas would look like without a major highway running through the middle of it. It would be even less developed. I think from now on I will see things in a different light. Development versus non-development, and non-development makes me smile.
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