Thursday, March 3, 2016

At least a little good news somewhere


There isn't much to celebrate, conservation-wise, in terms of the slow degradation of the world's natural environment.  Even though it has been shown that preserves, which basically reduce exploitation of a species to zero and protect its habitat, work (particularly in the oceans), most natural populations of animals and plants are declining.  Some of these declines are drastic and some are minimal, depending on how resilient and adaptable a particular organism is.

So it is a bit heartening to read about a good year for the monarch butterfly, which has been in serious decline.  It has shown a bit of a comeback in its wintering grounds in Mexico this year. We need all the good news we can get, and monarchs need more milkweed.

Monarch butterfly population surges in Mexico

"The orange and black butterfly covered 4.01 hectares (9.9 acres) of pine and fir forest in the 2015-2016 season, more than tripling last year’s figure of 1.13 hectares, Mexican, US and Canadian officials said."



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