I was not surprised to read about the most recent study pointing out the continued destruction of the monarch forests. An article about the study in the New York Times side-by-side satellite photos of a portion of the monarch forest in both 2004 and 2008. The loss of forest cover is undeniable.
But denial is happening on a regional scale in Mexico because, even though it is well known and documented, the destruction is only speeding up.
In one sense the satellite forest reduction does not seem so dramatic — the forest looks only a little more brown in 2008 when compared to 2004. It takes an intimate knowledge of what each new speck of brown means to really get the sense of what is going on.
Standing in a clearcut forest in that same area a few years ago, I could not help but feel angry about the robbery: robbing the earth of trees, effectively stealing the future from the people in the region who depend on those forests for water collection, erosion control, ecological integrity, and more. And of course leaving the monarchs, who have traveled implausibly far, especially for their size, with nothing either.
The data illustrating the destruction, both visual and quantitative, continues to grow. Yet so does the rate of loss. Denial is a powerful force. And so are the other contributing factors of greed and corruption. It may no longer be surprising to see such loss, but it never gets any less painful.
Lee Pagni
ECOLIFE FOUNDATION
Endangered Monarch Butterflies
Outreach Project Coordinator
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