Am I imagining things or does nature not look nearly as vibrant as it used to?

For exampe, I've been going outside recently in hopes of seeing some vivid autumn shades in the trees but nearly all the leaves are simply dying off without changing color (green and moist straight to brown and dry). It looks really unsightly and it's widespread here in Calgary. Even during the summer, the foliage just didn't look or feel healthy. Everywhere I looked, lots of plants had brown spots on the leaves and overall they were lacking that sharp vivid dark green they're supposed to have. This is despite record precipitation in June.

The air and ground as well just seem poisonous in the past few years, I have no better way of describing it. From foul dry dust in the wind to the sickly hard soil, I can't imagine how anything can grow here naturally. What the heck is going on? Is this early desertification due to climate change? Is this happening in other places in North America or Europe?