The Rapture + Disappearing Monarchs

Yesterday I discussed "the Rapture" with a coworker. He believes that the new pope could be the false prophet mentioned in the Book of Revelation, though he incorrectly predicted his name to be "Peter the Roman." I don't know if it's a mark of end times; but, according to an article today by Michael Wines, "Monarch Migration Plunges to Lowest Levels in Decades," maybe we should assign Monsanto the role of false prophet, the beast from the earth. According to Wines,

The latest decline was hastened by drought and record-breaking heat in North America when the monarchs arrived last spring to reproduce. Warmer than usual conditions led the insects to arrive early and to nest farther north than is typical, Chip Taylor, director of the conservation group Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas, said in an interview. The early arrival disrupted the monarchs’ breeding cycle, he said, and the hot weather dried insect eggs and lowered the nectar content of the milkweed on which they feed. 

That in turn weakened the butterflies and lowered the number of eggs laid. 

But an equally alarming source of the decline, both Mr. Taylor and Mr. Vidal said, is the explosive increase in American farmland planted in soybean and corn genetically modified to tolerate herbicides. 

The American Midwest’s corn belt is a critical feeding ground for monarchs, which once found a ready source of milkweed growing between the rows of millions of acres of soybean and corn. But the ubiquitous use of herbicide-tolerant crops has enabled farmers to wipe out the milkweed, and with it much of the butterflies’ food supply. 

“That habitat is virtually gone. We’ve lost well over 120 million acres, and probably closer to 150 million acres,” Mr. Taylor said. 

A rapid expansion of farmland — more than 25 million new acres in the United States since 2007 — has eaten away grasslands and conservation reserves that supplied the monarchs with milkweed, he said. 

The monarchs’ migration is seen as a natural marvel and, for Mexico, a huge tourist attraction. But naturalists regard the butterflies as a forward indicator of the health of the food chain. Fewer butterflies probably means there are fewer other insects that are food for birds, and fewer birds for larger predators.

I dreamed a disturbing dream this morning. I was being interviewed for a job at a financial consulting firm owned by a husband and wife. Apparently I had done some volunteer work with the wife years before -- phone banking for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. They put me up in a private suite with bed and bath and provided me with new slacks, shirts and ties. The waist size of the pants was 34; this concerned me that they would be an inch or two too big. I was unsure if they wanted me to change right there in front of them while they conducted the interview. I decided against it. My problem was that I couldn't keep my eyes open; I kept falling asleep in the middle of their questions; then I'd wake up and apologize. It was stressful.