The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is moving to put the monarch butterfly on the endangered species list. Currently, only as threatened, not endangered. But still ...
That's huge, gigantic, and terrifying. As I said, it's epic.
This is not some obscure weed or local insect or lizard that only eats a certain type of worm. This is well-known orange-and-black monarch butterfly, which migrates around the country, which hangs in trees in Mexico in the winter in large groups (though that is endangered, too):
and which is also famous for its black-white-yellow milkweed-chowing caterpillar making a gold-studded turquoise chrysalis.
I would hazard that there have been hundreds of nature books with pictures of the monarch butterfly. It's a signature species. It's virtually unthinkable that it would go extinct.
But it might.
U.S. moves to add monarch butterfly to the endangered species list
"On its current course, the western monarch has a 99 percent chance of vanishing for good in about the next six decades, according to the federal scientists, after its population dropped by more than 95 percent from over 4.5 million in the 1980s."
"Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas), who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, criticized the proposed rule, arguing it shows why the Endangered Species Act needs to be amended to give more power to states.
“Monarchs are a classic example of why ESA reform is necessary, and empowering states and private landowners is the best way to go about reform,” he said in a statement. “In its 50-year run, the ESA has failed to achieve its goals for recovery.”
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