Bringing Back Butterflies

ON EARTH ARE "BELLWETHER SPECIES", plants and animals the state of whose health is an indicator of the state of health of the overall environment. Among these are butterflies, frogs, bees, and many various plant species. Alarmingly, over the past few decades, the populations of nearly all bellwether species have shrunk dramatically, and the much maligned but always correct scientific community knows exactly the cause, if anyone in our anti-scientific culture cares to receive elucidation. The culprits are chemical pollution, climate change, and in general human destruction of natural habitat, the selfsame bugaboos which are combing in a perfect storm of destruction to shepherd us all towards doom, towards species extinction, human included. And yet, there is hope, for we have determined that we shall not go quietly into the night, but shall stand and fight, fight for our very lives amid our own self destructive behavior. All over the world masses of heretofore moribund are awakening to reality, a sleeping giant of potential human momentum for health, change, and survival bringing itself to life. We have hope. The annual migrations of the monarch butterfly, for example. It must be a glorious sight as a huge cloud miles long a wide, goes sweeping across the sky, back and forth, between the northern United States, or somewhere, and southern Mexico, or somewhere, following the seasons, dancing the sacred life cycle dance of creation and recreation through mating, life, and death. A thick dens fog, of black and yellow monarch butterflies, billions of them, thick as a dense fog, never seen by most, but presumably momentarily glimpsed by a few thousand or so fortunate souls, whose reports we seldom if ever hear. Has anyone ever heard tell of the witnessing of the cloud of monarchs passing by? In actuality, the gorgeous tiny creatures live all over North America, and tend to migrate in many dense clouds towards Mexico and even southern California where it is warm enough for them to spend the winter, then, in the warming spring, form many clouds for long collective flight and scatter back towards the north, again, to append the growing season all over North America, including your back yard. The great butterfly clouds, like all other great natural phenomena, has diminished in recent years. but now, oh holly now, the cloud is once again growing, ad the Mexican government takes charge, and takes time away from fighting drug cartels and American attempts to seal off it asylum seekers - to try to save the monarchs, and hence, the planet. he Mexican government is restoring monarch habitat, and that simple process is rapidly restoring the flock to its original, natural billons members condition. but there is a caveat, as always. Capitalism will not be quenched. New construction is springing up everywhere, as the profit motive behind human habitat and infrastructure expansion devours more and more wildlife habitat, all along the thousands of miles long butterfly route, all points in between, and including at both terminuses. (termini?) We the human species is, as always, at war with ourselves. We simultaneously want to save the ecosystem, the planet, and ourselves with it, and multiply, prosper, and grow materially, with new houses, highways and cities emerging from the soils explosively. We are at war with ourselves, and which side of our inside selves will win in the end? Count the monarch butterflies as they fly by your satellite dish some fine, balmy summer evening, and by counting them, ye shall know the truth, and the truth, as always, shall set you free, free, at least, of the fear inherent in doubt.