7 ms·

The Year the Monarch Didn’t Appear

111 points by bowerbird 13y ago

JoeAltmaier 13y ago
I live in Iowa; I haven't seen a Monarch butterfly in years. Used to be (I grew up here) you couldn't walk outside without one landing on you.
thaddeusmt 13y ago
I remember catching monarch butterfly caterpillars, as a child in New York, and keeping them with milkweed stems until they formed their chrysalis and eventually "hatched" as butterflies. Amazing. We moved West eventually, and I've rarely seen monarchs since. I figured it was just because of the different habitat (no milkweed), but apparently it's not just that. All insects are amazing in their own ways, but monarchs just have that extra curbside appeal to humans. Sad to hear they are in decline. Regardless of the link-bait/fear-mongering at play in any environmental journalism these days... I have genuine concern about growing the impact of humans on the earth. It's hard to remain optimistic sometimes, even as a technology-positive person.
the_honorable 13y ago
God this is sad.
- vincie 13y ago
  God this is going to get sadder.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
  - downer96 13y ago
    Don't worry! Patented, genetically-modified agribusiness will save us by giving us all the food for free!!!
rosser 13y ago
I'm starting to wonder seriously if we haven't already passed an inflection point in the wanton destruction of the environment from which we'll never fully recover. Someone please convince me we haven't broken our planet beyond its ability to carry us.
- cfontes 13y ago
  Sorry, If we didn't get there yet I think our "destruction inertia" is too big to stop on time for this environment that currently exists. I bet you that every single one of us here that like outdoors and are 20+ can remember some animal that we can't find anymore as easy as we used to. That must means something! I am not sure what, but it doesn't look good. For me the marker are sea horses. I been diving since very young and I can remember seeing them close to the south of my country like a pest. Several at once. Now it's been more than 10 years since I saw the last one. The thing is... Humans will survive. Nature made us way to good at that. The problem is that we will probably be living in a blue and green empty desert. Another point it that Earth will also survive us... So in the long run, Life as a entity is mostly safe. We are just going to be another event of mass extinction in the history of this planet. Evolution must be so proud :D But this is just my IT/Biologist point of view.
  - crag 13y ago
    "Another point it that Earth will also survive us... So in the long run, Life as a entity is mostly safe. We are just going to be another event of mass extinction in the history of this planet. Evolution must be so proud " A couple of million years is piss from the planets point of view. And in those millions of years we will evolve (despite what certain religions say). Even the mass extinction of the dinosaurs resulted in birds (among other things). We are all part of this world. And life goes on. No matter what. The question is what will our impact have on a future us? What will life be like say in 10,000 years? Hell, even 5,000 years?
    - Crito 13y ago
      > "And in those millions of years we will evolve (despite what certain religions say)." It is possible that we will do much more than just evolve. Normally organisms change over extremely long periods of time through 'natural' processes but humans uniquely have insight into the mechanism of how this happens. We may, in the future, develop the ability (and desire) to take things into our own hands. Just starting it out nice and slow, we could 'finish the job' in a few cases. Knock out wisdom teeth once and for all (somewhere between 9 and 30% of people are missing some or all of them anyway). No real reason to wait around a few dozens to hundreds of thousands of years for those to finish disappearing if we can do it ourselves.
llamataboot 13y ago
The usual suspects: monoculture and Monsanto and strange corp/govt hybrids (in this case wrt biofuels)
zachrose 13y ago
When I was a kid I had a VHS tape—I think it was a National Geographic—that was about Monarch Butterflies in Mexico and also Fire Eaters in Mexico City. Does anyone else know what I'm talking about? I can't find any titles or clues on the web.
k__ 13y ago
"YOU’VE REACHED THE LIMIT OF 10 FREE ARTICLES A MONTH. Subscribe to continue reading." What the...
- ajtaylor 13y ago
  Go to google, copy-n-paste the url into the search box, click the link from the search results page and you're in!
VladRussian2 13y ago
>Another major cause is farming with Roundup, a herbicide that kills virtually all plants except crops that are genetically modified to survive it. now i know explicit answer why GMO is bad. You never know before-fact, yet can always be sure that whatever good at first look thing appear it will ultimately be turned into real bad one.
trekky1700 13y ago
Ironically, where I live in Canada, I've been noticing more and more monarchs (and their close cousin the viceroy) each year in my gardens and the milkweed fields. Perhaps some change in environment/temperature is causing this. Or maybe they just like free healthcare.
- leandrod 13y ago
  It stands to reason that, if temperatures are rising, insects will benefit in cold climates such as yours.
  - TheCraiggers 13y ago
    I feel the need to point out that global warming doesn't warm every area and is calculated as a global average increase in temperature. Some areas may actually get colder due to the environment changes, not warmer. Interestingly enough however, Canada are one of those areas that is getting warmer more than average.
whyenot 13y ago
For better or worse, we are currently in the midst of another mass extinction. It's something that will play out for generations as humans continue to modify the planet for our needs. We don't really know yet what the end result will look like. Our grand kids probably won't know either. Just one example: somewhere around 1995 a nursery in California, most likely in Marin or the North Bay, imported some plants from Asia. What they didn't know at the time was the leaves of those plants were infected with the fungus-like organism Phytophthora ramorum. That organism would eventually escape and infect tanoak and coast live oak throughout central California. A few years later it was found in Oregon. That organism causes the disease called sudden oak death. While it is difficult to make predictions, the impact on oaks in California will likely be profound. One study predicted that 90% of the coast live oak and black oak in California will be dead within the next 50 years. Animals that use acorns from these species for food will probably experience a decline, and one could imagine further ripple effects throughout the ecosystem. If you live or work in Silicon Valley, and you look to the west at the coast range, most of that green stuff that you are seeing on the mountains is coast live oak woodland. Now imagine 30%, 60%, 90% of those trees dead. (The above information is based on a talk by Matteo Garbelotto, a plant pathologist at UC Berkeley.) By the way, you may of heard of California's "golden hills"? Non-native annual grasses. Brought to California by the Spanish when they first explored the state. Over time, the non-native grasses crowded out most of California's native perennial grasses. If you had lived in California 700 years ago, many of the hills wouldn't be golden, they would have been tinged green.
- wobbleblob 13y ago
  The same thing happened to the American chestnut and various species of Elm. Around 100 years ago, the chestnut was the most common deciduous tree east of the Mississippi. The chestnut blight, an accidentally introduced Asian fungus that causes the bark to fall off, effectively wiped the species out in less than 40 years. Only suckers from ancient root stocks remain. As soon as a stem grows thick enough to support a thick bark, the fungus kills it. During the second half of the 20th century, the Elm effectively became extinct in the wild, both in Europe and North America, due to the Elm disease. More recently the Hemlock came under attack from the hemlock woolly adelgid, an accidentally introduced Asian insect. The next generation will not be able to imagine what a mature hemlock looked like.
GotAnyMegadeth 13y ago
I know that most species that have ever existed have gone extinct, but every time I hear about a new one I can't help feeling sad. That doesn't just apply to the cute an cuddly ones either. Insects and fish are ace.
bowerbird 13y ago
by the time y'all realize how serious it is, it's definitely going to be _way_ too late... and when awareness hits like a ton of bricks? humans don't act or think too well in a panic. -bowerbird
- Zerowaster 13y ago
  Would it be a public service if Monsanto created a roundup ready milkweed and granted it freely to the world? Would that tide us over until Monsanto goes extinct?
jimhefferon 13y ago
Roundup-resistant. You know that's bad.
pond_lilly 13y ago
Here is what you can do: grow milkweed. I do and it seems like my milkweed patch is the only one for miles. I had some monarchs coming in this summer to lay eggs looking so beat up like they flew nonstop from Canada to find my patch. I also had insane population explosion this year as butterflies overlaid eggs and caterpillars ate all plants I had. I tried to add more but could not keep up, milkweed grows very slowly and once they ate all leaves, it takes months to regrow. tl;dr : please grow milkweed

111 points by bowerbird 13y ago

I live in Iowa; I haven't seen a Monarch butterfly in years. Used to be (I grew up here) you couldn't walk outside without one landing on you.

thaddeusmt 13y ago

I remember catching monarch butterfly caterpillars, as a child in New York, and keeping them with milkweed stems until they formed their chrysalis and eventually "hatched" as butterflies. Amazing. We moved West eventually, and I've rarely seen monarchs since. I figured it was just because of the different habitat (no milkweed), but apparently it's not just that. All insects are amazing in their own ways, but monarchs just have that extra curbside appeal to humans. Sad to hear they are in decline. Regardless of the link-bait/fear-mongering at play in any environmental journalism these days... I have genuine concern about growing the impact of humans on the earth. It's hard to remain optimistic sometimes, even as a technology-positive person.

the_honorable 13y ago

God this is sad.

vincie 13y ago
God this is going to get sadder.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- downer96 13y ago
  Don't worry! Patented, genetically-modified agribusiness will save us by giving us all the food for free!!!

rosser 13y ago

I'm starting to wonder seriously if we haven't already passed an inflection point in the wanton destruction of the environment from which we'll never fully recover. Someone please convince me we haven't broken our planet beyond its ability to carry us.

cfontes 13y ago
Sorry, If we didn't get there yet I think our "destruction inertia" is too big to stop on time for this environment that currently exists. I bet you that every single one of us here that like outdoors and are 20+ can remember some animal that we can't find anymore as easy as we used to. That must means something! I am not sure what, but it doesn't look good. For me the marker are sea horses. I been diving since very young and I can remember seeing them close to the south of my country like a pest. Several at once. Now it's been more than 10 years since I saw the last one. The thing is... Humans will survive. Nature made us way to good at that. The problem is that we will probably be living in a blue and green empty desert. Another point it that Earth will also survive us... So in the long run, Life as a entity is mostly safe. We are just going to be another event of mass extinction in the history of this planet. Evolution must be so proud :D But this is just my IT/Biologist point of view.
- crag 13y ago
  "Another point it that Earth will also survive us... So in the long run, Life as a entity is mostly safe. We are just going to be another event of mass extinction in the history of this planet. Evolution must be so proud " A couple of million years is piss from the planets point of view. And in those millions of years we will evolve (despite what certain religions say). Even the mass extinction of the dinosaurs resulted in birds (among other things). We are all part of this world. And life goes on. No matter what. The question is what will our impact have on a future us? What will life be like say in 10,000 years? Hell, even 5,000 years?
  - Crito 13y ago
    > "And in those millions of years we will evolve (despite what certain religions say)." It is possible that we will do much more than just evolve. Normally organisms change over extremely long periods of time through 'natural' processes but humans uniquely have insight into the mechanism of how this happens. We may, in the future, develop the ability (and desire) to take things into our own hands. Just starting it out nice and slow, we could 'finish the job' in a few cases. Knock out wisdom teeth once and for all (somewhere between 9 and 30% of people are missing some or all of them anyway). No real reason to wait around a few dozens to hundreds of thousands of years for those to finish disappearing if we can do it ourselves.

llamataboot 13y ago

The usual suspects: monoculture and Monsanto and strange corp/govt hybrids (in this case wrt biofuels)

zachrose 13y ago

When I was a kid I had a VHS tape—I think it was a National Geographic—that was about Monarch Butterflies in Mexico and also Fire Eaters in Mexico City. Does anyone else know what I'm talking about? I can't find any titles or clues on the web.

k__ 13y ago

"YOU’VE REACHED THE LIMIT OF 10 FREE ARTICLES A MONTH. Subscribe to continue reading." What the...

ajtaylor 13y ago
Go to google, copy-n-paste the url into the search box, click the link from the search results page and you're in!

VladRussian2 13y ago

>Another major cause is farming with Roundup, a herbicide that kills virtually all plants except crops that are genetically modified to survive it. now i know explicit answer why GMO is bad. You never know before-fact, yet can always be sure that whatever good at first look thing appear it will ultimately be turned into real bad one.

trekky1700 13y ago

Ironically, where I live in Canada, I've been noticing more and more monarchs (and their close cousin the viceroy) each year in my gardens and the milkweed fields. Perhaps some change in environment/temperature is causing this. Or maybe they just like free healthcare.

leandrod 13y ago
It stands to reason that, if temperatures are rising, insects will benefit in cold climates such as yours.
- TheCraiggers 13y ago
  I feel the need to point out that global warming doesn't warm every area and is calculated as a global average increase in temperature. Some areas may actually get colder due to the environment changes, not warmer. Interestingly enough however, Canada are one of those areas that is getting warmer more than average.

whyenot 13y ago

For better or worse, we are currently in the midst of another mass extinction. It's something that will play out for generations as humans continue to modify the planet for our needs. We don't really know yet what the end result will look like. Our grand kids probably won't know either. Just one example: somewhere around 1995 a nursery in California, most likely in Marin or the North Bay, imported some plants from Asia. What they didn't know at the time was the leaves of those plants were infected with the fungus-like organism Phytophthora ramorum. That organism would eventually escape and infect tanoak and coast live oak throughout central California. A few years later it was found in Oregon. That organism causes the disease called sudden oak death. While it is difficult to make predictions, the impact on oaks in California will likely be profound. One study predicted that 90% of the coast live oak and black oak in California will be dead within the next 50 years. Animals that use acorns from these species for food will probably experience a decline, and one could imagine further ripple effects throughout the ecosystem. If you live or work in Silicon Valley, and you look to the west at the coast range, most of that green stuff that you are seeing on the mountains is coast live oak woodland. Now imagine 30%, 60%, 90% of those trees dead. (The above information is based on a talk by Matteo Garbelotto, a plant pathologist at UC Berkeley.) By the way, you may of heard of California's "golden hills"? Non-native annual grasses. Brought to California by the Spanish when they first explored the state. Over time, the non-native grasses crowded out most of California's native perennial grasses. If you had lived in California 700 years ago, many of the hills wouldn't be golden, they would have been tinged green.

wobbleblob 13y ago
The same thing happened to the American chestnut and various species of Elm. Around 100 years ago, the chestnut was the most common deciduous tree east of the Mississippi. The chestnut blight, an accidentally introduced Asian fungus that causes the bark to fall off, effectively wiped the species out in less than 40 years. Only suckers from ancient root stocks remain. As soon as a stem grows thick enough to support a thick bark, the fungus kills it. During the second half of the 20th century, the Elm effectively became extinct in the wild, both in Europe and North America, due to the Elm disease. More recently the Hemlock came under attack from the hemlock woolly adelgid, an accidentally introduced Asian insect. The next generation will not be able to imagine what a mature hemlock looked like.

GotAnyMegadeth 13y ago

I know that most species that have ever existed have gone extinct, but every time I hear about a new one I can't help feeling sad. That doesn't just apply to the cute an cuddly ones either. Insects and fish are ace.

bowerbird 13y ago

by the time y'all realize how serious it is, it's definitely going to be _way_ too late... and when awareness hits like a ton of bricks? humans don't act or think too well in a panic. -bowerbird

Zerowaster 13y ago
Would it be a public service if Monsanto created a roundup ready milkweed and granted it freely to the world? Would that tide us over until Monsanto goes extinct?

jimhefferon 13y ago

Roundup-resistant. You know that's bad.

pond_lilly 13y ago

Here is what you can do: grow milkweed. I do and it seems like my milkweed patch is the only one for miles. I had some monarchs coming in this summer to lay eggs looking so beat up like they flew nonstop from Canada to find my patch. I also had insane population explosion this year as butterflies overlaid eggs and caterpillars ate all plants I had. I tried to add more but could not keep up, milkweed grows very slowly and once they ate all leaves, it takes months to regrow. tl;dr : please grow milkweed