People value whatever is extraordinary. On a recent visit to Costa Rica, for example,
my wife and I were thrilled to glimpse beautifully iridescent Blue Morpho butterflies flitting through
the forested foothills, their wings a luxuriant aquamarine. Like thousands of
other eco-tourists, we’d willingly traveled two thousand miles in search of the
exotic. What’s unfamiliar excites interest.
Now a report suggests that other butterflies we regard as garden
variety, like the familiar Monarch, may soon become as rare as Blue
Morphos. The latest census from Mexico
indicates that the number of insects who successfully complete their annual
migration has plummeted. Milkweed, which
is the only foodstuff for Monarchs, is being eradicated from North American
fields as farmers switch to genetically-modified crops like “Round Up Ready”
corn and soybeans that are designed to withstand toxic chemicals that kill
every other plant in the area. With no
milkweed, the Monarchs are falling victim to progress. The southern forests where the butterflies
overwinter were depopulated in the last count, with the orange-and-black
visitors occupying less than three acres in the Mariposa Sanctuary, down from
more than fifty acres just a few years ago.
Soon, they may be gone.
Can you plant your own butterfly garden? Yes. Include
more organic food in your diet. Demand
that genetically-modified foods be labeled as such, so that shoppers can make
smart decisions about what kind of agriculture they want to patronize and
support. Many people would gladly pay a
few pennies more for items that are less costly to the Monarchs, Morphos and
other forms of life.
In the meantime, one wonders, when will our species begin to
value what is common? How much of earth’s beauty will be lost
forever before it’s considered rare enough to be saved? With eyes to see the riches of the ordinary, we can all be wealthy as monarchs.
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