Towheeblog

Yesterday’s ho-hum is today’s bulletin. We will be seeing and feeling more of this radical shift in perspective as climate change continues to change more than climate.
We’ve heard about the steep decline in monarch butterflies. This year marks the low point in the population for as far back as record go. Click here for the sad story.
When I was a kid in the Missouri Ozarks back those many decades ago, monarchs were around my parents’ farm all summer long. “Weed sprays” were still a rarely used weapon against plants that were not domestic. So milkweed flourished on roadsides and along fences. No more.
So this month I have seen two living monarchs (both butterflies, neither of royal blood) on their annual migration. One was near Emigrant Lake, the other came through our garden and sampled our buddleia. The later plant is now an “invasive” and no longer legally sold in Oregon. One man’s pest is another bug’s delight, you might say.
So the good news: there are still monarchs. That means we humans have time to intervene on their behalf now that we humans have done so much to destroy them. It means we have to kick our addiction to poisons and that means saying “no” to some powerful cultural and corporate forces. Too bad the monarchs themselves can’t rule. Give them a seat on the Monsanto board of directors? I thought not.