Today, I read that the monarch is being put on the endangered list. Its numbers have declined up to 70% in the past 10 years. After reading that I went into my bathroom and sobbed. The monarchs are endangered because of lack of habitat, pesticides and herbicides.
One of the most beautiful films I ever saw was an IMAX about the migration of the Monarch butterfly. They have this instinctive urge to migrate from North America to Mexico and back again. The amazing thing is that it is not the same butterfly! They die and reproduce along the way but they continue in this migratory pattern no matter where they are in their own life cycle. So beautiful, fragile and yet strong.
Reading that they are now on the endangered list broke me today. It brought to the surface all the feelings of grief and anxiety I have been feeling about the environment but keep trying to shove down. Anyone that has been halfway paying attention this summer has had to have noticed the effects of climate change! The whole planet is literally on fire and we just carry on like nothing unusual is happening.
Are we able to turn this thing around before it gets too late? I truly believe that most of yesterday’s solutions are today’s problems. Industrial agriculture was the solution to feeding the world after WW2. Fossil fuels have been our energy solution since before the industrial revolution. It's hard to think of solutions to today's problems when all we see around us is fire, increasing carbon in the air we breathe, plastic litter, and loss of species. So heavy.
It’s not the carbon footprint of the average person that is the problem it is our larger industries and systems we have built. We ALL play a part in the cycle of events happening now and we can only change things we take responsibility for. So where to start?? I am not sure but I think I’m going to start researching the big agricultural chemical companies and see where I can be a voice for change there. Maybe action in any small way will help me deal with this hopeless feeling??
The bottom image is a journal page I did a while back that seems fitting for today. I pray that one day we can look back and say - Wow! Look how this all worked out.
This is a recent painting from my sacred heart series. It is a mixed media on canvas.