Watching an American indie band is not the most obvious way to commune with a wonder of the natural world but look up Saint Simon by the Shins on YouTube.
The band plays in a forest in central Mexico, surrounded by towering chandeliers of butterflies, trees full of butterflies, clouds of butterflies. It is a stunning encounter with the monarch, one of the world’s most remarkable migratory insects.
Today it is tragic, too, because the video, filmed 15 years ago, is already a memento of vanished glory. Eastern monarch populations, which overwinter in Mexico, have fallen by 80% over 40 years.
Western monarchs, which over winter in California, have all but gone. In 1997, more than 1m were counted in California over Thanksgiving. Five years ago, it was 300,000. In 2020, less than 2,000 were counted.
Despite this collapse, the US government has concluded that the monarch is unworthy of special protection under the Endangered Species Act. There are more urgent priorities, apparently.
In Mexico, conservationists are murdered for trying to protect the monarch.
Ultimately, the extinction crisis will kill us, and if we cannot take the international action required to save this wondrous creature – outlawing insect-killing pesticides and saving ancient forests – then perhaps obliteration is what we deserve.
