Importance of The Bug

The Year the Monarchs Didn't Appear by: Jim Robbins

Nowadays people don’t actually pay much attention to the environment. Sure, everyone talks about it being important and crucial, and whatever else these people think sound appropriate to say they say. But do people really mean it? Or, even better, do people actually do something about it? Yeah, probably not.

Well I guess at least it means something that people are talking about the environment. But the again, do they really know what they are talking about? And again, probably not. What people think they know about global warming and fossil fuels and pollution, is simply just that. But there are much more crucial details we have to pay attention to, affecting the environment and the world. For example one that really called my attention, that fact that the monarch butterflies are appearing in much less quantities each year.

The fact that barely 5% of last years 60 million butterflies showed up this year, later than they usually do means something. And I believe that it is a really important subject we must pay more attention to. Companies and businesses are worried about how much money they will earn this year, instead of how will they work to be friendly to the planet. And at a point like this one, where our environment is crucial to our survival, and where our environment is as fragile and damaged as it is, there is no time to think simply about money.

What called my attention the most was when Robbins mentions the Roundup. And how this chemical that is obviously lab made, to kill all plants except the crops meant to be planted. Well this also means death of insects of the area and their source of food. Now, that may seem like no big deal. But if it’s happening all over the US and who know where else, it is a big deal. “Insects help stitch together the web of life with essential services, breaking plants down into organic matter… some 80 percent of our food crops are pollinated by insects, primarily the 4,000 or so species of the flying dust mops called bees” says Jim Robbins, and if all this insects will soon disappear, from what Robbins talks about in his article, we are kind of damned.

It does sound absurd, but Robbins has a point when he agrees with Dr. Tallamy, mankind does depend on bugs. And we have to make this notice. The good thing is, we can make a difference, and there people already doing so. ”It’s a cause everyone with a garden or yard can serve. And he says support for it needs to develop quickly to slow down the worsening crisis in biodiversity.” So yes, we can help and we must, because mankind depends on it.