here's some chilling evidence: > http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/sunday-review/the-year-the...

we've only known about this migration spot since 1975, but even in that evolutionarily-brief time, we saw as many as an estimated _billion_ butterflies yearly, every november.

but the number has been falling.

last year had the lowest total we've known -- 60 million.

this year? 3 million. even toward the end of the month.

it's almost impossible to pretend that's not significant.

the insects we cannot see so readily, or track so easily, are probably suffering the same kinds of collapses, but we just don't know. we just plain do not know. it's sad.

-bowerbird