One day, just for something different, I spent a little time with some old polymer clay we had stored away. I made a few shrooms - the basic shapes were easy - and mounted them on a cool-looking rock for a base. Dreaming Mushrooms was born.

That first stone was a sampler of sorts - I just dove in and made a bunch of shrooms I knew about or had seen in books or our yard. Shrooms like Chicken of the Woods, Turkey Tails, several trumpet type mushrooms, basic caps-and-stems, and since every story needs a villain, Satan’s Fingers.

These days, I do most of my sculptures on foraged pieces of wood, preserved and populated with mushrooms of all shapes, sizes, colors, and patterns. Some are even representative of actual mushrooms in the world. But most only exist in my mind. The inspiration is still there: to appreciate nature and all the possibilities that it provides.

But we have to be careful or we’ll lose that beauty and possibility. When I look at the trees around me, it’s hard to ignore how their once robust appearance - hell their very presence - seems to be fading. They seem more branches than leaves - with maybe 30% of the leaves they should hold.

Climate change and drought, pollution, and the spread of invasive species are slowly erasing the vigor of these essential "oxygen factories." And humans cannot dodge the blame for this destruction; we own it. In fact, we must put a stop to it.

What if we don’t? What happens if – or when – the trees vanish entirely? The consequences for humanity will be catastrophic. Our oxygen supply will dwindle; intense sunlight will beat down on us; familiar foods like apples, oranges, and walnuts will disappear from our menu.

Remarkably, nature has already one-upped us with a population of diehard survivors. No, not cockroaches. The fungus, Talaromyces flavus, feeds on stone by secreting an acid that dissolves the rock, allowing the fungus to extract essential nutrients like iron and magnesium. And as the minerals are leached out, the fungus continues growing, pushing through the newly formed channels and voids in the rock.

Perhaps, when all the trees are dead, other fungi will learn this adaptation and evolve to survive in a world without trees, consuming the boulders and rocks left behind in the desolate landscapes that once teemed with life.

So I ask you:

Can we adapt to a hot, barren, tree-less world? Will we survive? Will we want to?

I firmly believe that art will save the world. I’ve been saying it for the last couple of decades. Will polymer clay mushrooms on rocks put an end to the climate change disaster we are obviously experiencing? Of course not. But appreciation of art leads to finding and embracing the best of daily life. I know this to be true! And appreciation of daily life might just lead to a desire in all of us to change the disastrous course we are currently on.