This morning I caught a news story about a study on insect die off. The study counted the numbers of insects that splat on car windshields, which the study shows have declined dramatically. This is not to be sneezed at since the implication points to an imminent collapse in the natural world that sustains humans and all life on Earth. Another study shows plummeting numbers of aquatic insects in streams. And the global warming news keeps getting worse and worse! Entities that are in power don’t seem to want to do anything. I just finished Robert Heinlein’s short story “The Year of the Jackpot”, which is online at the link. While not exactly comforting, it is a great 1952 short story of an actuary, who makes a hobby of tracking zany news stories, and correlates these stories in a way that points to an inevitable worldwide catastrophic climax. How prescient!
My tribute to insects, “Butterflies and Ironweed”, is below.
