An Earth Day Wish

Preface / Introduction

My Earth Day wish is for all to live in peace and harmony!

My Contribution to that are these lovely articles by Dr. Jeffrey Lant -

"‘This, too, shall pass.’ On the majestic Monarch butterfly now in diminished numbers flying

indomitable but for how long? Look up in awe, as this great thing of beauty soars above us,

threatened."

"‘Some of these days, you’re gonna miss me….’ 2011 a catastrophic year for the endangered African

elephants. Do we really care?"

"New England’s cottontail rabbits face extinction… if you love them, help save them."

An Earth Day Wish

http://www.20WaystoProfit.com Copyright Patrice Porter - 2014 3 of 10

An Earth Day Wish

‘This, too, shall pass.’ On the majestic Monarch butterfly now in diminished numbers flying

indomitable but for how long? Look up in awe, as this great thing of beauty soars above us,

threatened. By Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author’s program note. As I write, in early October, the Monarch has

just about finished its great conjuring trick for another year; rising, flying, gliding, dancing in its

millions with sun beams as it hastens, like so many snow birds, on to Mexico and the warmth that

sustains its kind. There are noticeably fewer of them this year when there were noticeably fewer of

them than the year before. Deforestation and acutely diminished habitat have allied with the arid

lands wrought by draught to extinguish their own colossal numbers. The millions which still migrate

remind us of the millions more that migrate no longer. It is the first somber thought in a story, once

glorious, now shadowed by sadness and growing woe. This is the story of a Monarch once serene

and puissant over continents, now beset at all sides by our human kind who venerate but destroy

what it purports to love. It is a story that increasingly defines the pernicious business of man upon a

planet we have learned too late is not ours alone or ours to sully. Romulus Augustulus, the last

emperor of Rome (d. 507); Moctezuma, the last emperor of the Aztecs (d. 1520); Ferdinand

Maximilian, the last emperor of Mexico (d. 1867)… Some of the saddest people in the history of our

species are those born to rule, fated to command, but who in the event not only failed but failed

completely, totally, catastrophically. We are drawn to such people who have had everything but

ended their tragic lives with nothing. Such people remind us of the mutability of life, its whimsey,

capriciousness… and the tragedy that lurks at our margins ready to change our lives forever;

sovereigns no longer, just those crowned in irony, like Jesus himself. Hark, the monarchs arrive!

Throughout history, monarchs, all monarchs, have known the value of a presentation which

combines within itself a festival of sight, sound, even smells that proclaim the advent and then the

presence of the All Highest. It is a matter of the first importance, and one which no monarch desiring

a long and successful reign can ignore. And so for this article I give you “”Music for the Royal

Fireworks,” composed by George Frideric Handel in 1749. It celebrated the end of the War of the

Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. It, too, filled the sky

with splendor. This brilliant suite by an established master was worth the war (and its disappointing

results). Go now to any search engine and find it. It pleased King George II of England, Handel’s

august, happy and glorious master; it has since pleased a long procession of equally fastidious and

gratified monarchs. Imagine it as the music signifying the advent, striking presence and inspiring

arrival of the most durable of dynasties, Danaus plexippus, the great Monarch butterfly. Its name.

The common name “Monarch” was first published by Samuel H. Scudder in 1874 because “it is one

of the largest of our butterflies, and rules a vast domain.” It is commonly thought that the name was

applied in honor of King William III of England, whose elevation in 1688 secured the Protestant

religion and its establishment. Thus the Monarch butterfly became the symbol of a sovereign

successful in war, far seeing in peace; in short, the ideal monarch. The Monarch was one of the many

species originally named by Linnaeus in his “Systema Naturae” of 1758. It was first placed in the

genus “Papilio”. In 1780, Jan Krzysztof Kluk used the Monarch as the type species for a new genus:

Danaus, a great-grandson of the king of the gods of Olympus, Zeus. He was a mythical king of Egypt

or Libya, who founded Argos. “Plexippus” was one of the fifty sons of Aegyptus, the twin brother of

Danaus. In short, royalty in all its aspects was his metier and pressing business. Its taxonomy. The

Monarch is closely related to two very similar species which formed the Danaus subgenus before

2005. The first is the Jamaican monarch. The second is the southern monarch of South America

south of the Amazon river. The southern monarch is almost indistinguishable from the Monarch as

an adult, though the pupae are somewhat different; it is often considered a subspecies of the

Monarch proper. However, recent DNA analysis makes the fact clear that the Monarch and southern

monarch are quite distinct from each other. Monarchs value such findings; after all successions to

the throne and who rules (or who doesn’t rule) a kingdom is often the result of a slight genealogical

advantage and the (almost) inevitable war that was necessary to ensure the desired result. Its range.

An Earth Day Wish


advantage and the (almost) inevitable war that was necessary to ensure the desired result. Its range.

Monarch butterflies reign over a domain larger, far larger, than Rome’s empire at its height. It

ranges from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Mariposa Monarca Biosphere Reserve within the

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt in the Mexican states of Michocan and Mexico. The western

population overwinters in various sites in central coastal and southern California, notably in Santa

Cruz, and Grove Beach. Monarchs understand that a territory unvisited is a territory lost to someone

else. Thus each year, they undertake what earlier sovereigns called “a progress”, that is descending

en masse on the land of a valued member of the Court; “honored” to become bankrupt entertaining

the king. The monarch’s mere motion is considered a command; noblesse oblige. Its greatest

achievement. Even school children know what the Monarch is renowned for… flying some 2500

miles in the autumn….. flying some 2500 miles in the spring. Everything about this audacious

migration interests us. Why do they do it; how do they know when to do it; how do they stay in the

sky so long; how do they know where to go and why do they, without the gadgets of mankind,

unerringly find their way? And we want to know, too, why predators, birds for instance, don’t turn

so many flying kings into a mash fit for them? Like I said, everything about these graceful flyers

interests us. Here are some answers and some queries yet unresolved. What causes millions of these

insects, so popular with the public that at least five states (including Alabama, Idaho, Minnesota,

Texas and Vermont) have adopted it as the state insect? Scientists do not know thus leaving each to

forward his own as yet unproven hypothesis: sun angles, or visual cues such as coast-and-ridge-

lines, or an internal magnetic compass. But these are unproven assertions, not fact; that the

monarchs keep secret in their genetic code. It is the “secrete du roi” and, for now it remains so. But

there is one thing we do know about the Monarch; it is a thing the monarchs themselves wish to

have disseminated as widely as possible, namely that they have certain protection against predators

like birds. When monarchs reach the southern, warmer climes, they lay their many eggs on

milkweed plants, then die. When the eggs hatch, the caterpillars feed on the milkweed, ingesting

nourishment and, equally important, milkweed toxins which do a nasty job on a bird’s stomach. If

they make that mistake once, no bird ever makes it again. Monarchs think it a courtesy to predatory

birds et al to get this intelligence out… and now they have. Unfortunately they have no such remedy

for man and his depredations, depredations which are destroying everybody’s habitat, Earth. A boy

remembers. When I was growing up in Illinois over 6 decades ago, I’d take a break from mowing

the yard on a hot and sticky day to watch the perfection of the Monarchs as they wafted from plant

to plant, always the masters of grace and grandeur. It grieves me more than I can say to watch them

dying by inches before our eyes, instead of flying high, coloring the sky and making us happy, glad

such a thing of enchantment and magnificence, sublime, exists…. but for how long, how long? We

want the great Monarch to pass — over head, not into history as a beautiful thing that was but is no

longer because of our negligence. *******************

‘Some of these days, you’re gonna miss me….’ 2011 a catastrophic year for the endangered African

elephants. Do we really care? Are we living the waning days of the great African elephant? by Dr.

Jeffrey Lant Author’s program note. In 1911 Shelton Brooks wrote and composed a tune that

became the signature song for the “Last of the Red-Hot Mamas”, Sophie Tucker. There wasn’t a

woman alive (not a girl, mind, but a card-carrying woman) who didn’t love Tucker for getting up off

her backside and singing it like it is… about the woman who gave so much, only to be discarded and

spurned by her man… the man who thereby let you know he was on his way to other places, other

people. And so as Sophie got up and belted out the words, you knew she was singing for you…

An Earth Day Wish


“Some of these days. You’re gonna miss me honey/” Some of these days. You’re gonna feel so

lonely.” And no matter how demur and sweet you were, when Sophie sang this strident song, a

declaration of intent, you got up and sang it with her, yeah even if you were an arthritic 88…

because you were angry about that no good man; because you were hurtin’… because you needed to

make it clear you were still here, still desirable, still alive… and that your best days were not in the

past… but just around the corner. Sophie’s song was liberating, cathartic, a soul-lifter, helping you

get through the lonely days and even lonelier nights… so you could get up and keep going. If only

get through the lonely days and even lonelier nights… so you could get up and keep going. If only

the elephants had a defender like Sophie Tucker… and a tune like this one.which you’ll easily find

in any search engine)… maybe they wouldn’t be facing extinction by 2020. But they don’t… and

that’s just one more reason for despair…. 2011 a catastrophic year for the endangered African

elephants. Let’s be clear about something: specialists have known for some time, and have regularly

reported, that the end of the elephants is at hand unless radical action is taken and taken NOW. One

of the greatest creatures on our Third Rock from the Sun, the elephant, is about to go the way of all

flesh… only a comparative handful of bullets now stand between them and total, complete,

irrevocable extinction. The latest installment of this tragedy is being reported now. On December

29, 2011, for instance, Tom Milliken, an elephant and rhino specialist for the wildlife trade

monitoring network TRAFFIC said, “2011 has truly been a horrible year for elephants.” Why? For

the usual reason: ivory. 2011 was the worst year on record since ivory sales were banned in 1989, so

bad that the world is just 8 short years away from being present when the last great elephant is

shot… thereby demonstrating yet again how unfit we humans are for the task of saving this planet

and its creatures, wiped out one by one because of our proven ineptitude and malfeasance. It’s all

about the ivory. Milliken is clear and emphatic about the problem: “In 23 years of compiling ivory

seizure data… 2011 is the worst year ever for large ivory seizures.” As many as 3000 elephants were

killed by poachers in the last year, a figure of horror… pushing these elephants, bullet by bullet…

into a future without their majesty and wonder, In one case in early December, Malaysian authorities

seized hundreds of African elephant tusks valued at $1.3 million that were being shipped to

Cambodia. The ivory was hidden in containers of Kenyan handicrafts. Per usual, avarice was in the

driver’s seat. Particularly in Asia…. Experts agree that most of the outrages nowadays involve ivory

being smuggled from Africa into Asia, where growing wealth has fed the desire for Ivory ornaments

and for rhino horn that is used in traditional medicine, though scientists proved long ago that it has

no medicinal value whatsoever. And so African elephants die to provide gimcrackery for the

nouveau riche and fake medicine for the credulous and duped. Yes, for such trivial causes do these

great elephants die… TRAFFIC said Asian crime syndicates are increasingly involved in poaching

and the illegal ivory trade across Africa, a trend that coincides with growing Asian investment on

the continent. From his headquarters in Zimbabwe Milliken said, “The escalation in ivory trade and

elephant and rhino killing is being driven by the Asian syndicates that are now firmly enmeshed

within African societies.There are more Asians than ever before in the history of the continent, and

this is one of the repercussions.” Tom Milliken is a brave man; these syndicates cannot like these

words… and it is easy, so easy, to shoot one bullet in the night into an elephant — or into the good

people like Milliken who try to protect them and so notify the world about what’s going on. Fewer

elephants every single day and less hope for the future. By the end of this day another 25 elephants

will die… and with their passing there will be even less chance to preserve the survivors. The

problem is acute in Congo, northern Kenya, southern Tanzania, and northern Mozambique… and

An Earth Day Wish


most of all, in Chad where the elephant population is at crisis level, worsening with every passing

day as their dwindling numbers make clear. For instance, in the 1980′s experts estimated the total

population of African elephants around 1 million, with 70,000 elephants being killed a year. Now, at

the commencement of 2012, their numbers are less than 470,000 with poachers more ardent and

determined as elephants move closer to extinction. Poachers sense they must act now… or never.

Thus, authorities seized at least 13 large seizures in 2011… compared to 6 in 2010. And as the

elephant goes, so go all the creatures dependent on it. Earth is a series of interlocking networks; we

are all dependent on others who, in turn, are dependent on us. Thus as the elephants die, their

essential work of opening habitats for other species is diminished; and so the fate of one becomes

the fate of many until there is crisis and extinction for all. The African elephant is at the crucial

tipping point where, soon, it will be too late to change the course of events. We are close, so very

close to this moment, but the important thing is that we are not there yet. We can still, just now,

make a difference by… * Writing to the President of the United States and urging his immediate

action. * Sending a few bucks to TRAFFIC and the International Fund for Animal Welfare. *

Asking your Congressman and Senator to introduce resolutions on the matter. * Getting the kids in

your school to sign a petition, then sending it to your mayor and asking for a “Save the Elephants”

Day. Get the picture?. We must not allow what could now so easily happen, allowing the African

elephant to go gentle into this good-night. We must fight, fight against the waning of the light, like

Dylan Thomas wrote…. and as Sophie Tucker sang… for “when you leave me, I know it will grieve

me You’ll miss your little baby Yes, some of these days.” Let’s all do our bit at once so we never

have to grieve, in these or any other days… **************

New England’s cottontail rabbits face extinction… if you love them, help save them.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant I had the most extraordinary experience recently when I took my nephew Kyle

out to see the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts. Built in 1770 for patriot minister William

Emerson, the residents of this handsome clapboard house literally heard the shot heard round the

world on April 19, 1775. Later, that revolution won, residents welcomed one celebrated guest after

another… Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller. Two of the most celebrated of

all — Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne both lived there for a time and both were

fertile with the seminal ideas that shaped the new nation. Emerson wrote his famous essay “Nature”

in a stuffy upstairs bedroom. Hawthorne wrote a tribute to the house itself, “Mosses from an Old

Manse.” Both he and his wife Sophia chiseled poems for each other on the window glass using a

diamond that surely symbolized a love so great it could take in its stride the massive discomfort of

their chamber on the second floor, frigid in winter, insufferable in summer. One more guest came, or

rather a stream of them… and it is these guests who so startled us the other day. The Old Manse was

closing for the day and the sun was dipping in the western sky. I was walking away from the house

when I turned for a last look and saw an overpowering luminescence… a spectrum of colors bathed

in a light that could only be called celestial. It was a benediction… overwhelming… perplexing… …

until I realized that the epicenter of this luminescence was the heirloom vegetable garden originally

planted by Thoreau in honor of the Hawthornes’ wedding. Kyle and I were being ushered off the

property in high style, grandly so… by the rabbits who entered the garden as its visitors left; their

ears catching the light to produce this astonishing effect… It was unexpected but no less welcome for

that. It was good to see so many of them…. and so well, though I can imagine the gardeners felt

quite differently. Sadly, this brave show may well have been a swan song… especially if these

An Earth Day Wish


rabbits were of the New England cottontail variety. New England cottontails and their plight. The

New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) is a species of cottontail rabbit represented by

fragmented populations in areas of New England, specifically from southern Maine to southern New

York. This species bears a close resemblance (so close you must analyze their fecal droppings to tell

the difference) to the Eastern cottontail. It is important to know that the Eastern cottontail has done

the better job of adapting to its often harsh environment; the New England cottontail, for instance,

retains its brown color during the winter, the better to be seen and enjoyed by hungry coyotes and

owls. This is but one of the several pressing reasons which together may presage the end of these

uniquely New England residents. Here is the full litany of the woes which assail them… Item: Its

population is in sharp decline. As recently as 1960, New England cottontails were found east of the

Hudson River in New York, across all of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, north to

southern Vermont and New Hampshire, and into southern Maine. Today, this rabbit’s range has

shrunk by more than 75 percent. Its numbers are so greatly diminished that it cannot be found in

Vermont and has been reduced, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, to only five smaller

populations throughout its historic range. Item: Drastically reduced habitat. The New England

cottontail prefers early successional forests, often called thickets, with thick and tangled vegetation.

These young forests are generally less than 25 years old. Once large trees grow in a stand, the shrub

layer tends to shrink, creating habitat that the cottontails no longer find suitable. New England

cottontails need a certain amount of territory to flourish. They do best on patches of habitat larger

than 12 acres. Rabbits on smaller patches of habitat deplete their food supply sooner and have to eat

lower quality food, or may need to search for food in areas where there is more risk (especially in

winter) of being killed by a predator. Item: The introduction of exotic invasive species, such as

multiflora rose, honeysuckle bush and autumn olive, in the last century has changed the type of

habitat available to New England cottontails. These plants form the major component of many

patches where cottontails can be found, and the rabbits don’t like them at all. Item: Today white-

tailed deer are found in extremely high densities throughout the range of New England cottontails.

Deer not only eat many of the same plants but may affect the density of many understory plants that

provide thicket habitat for New England cottontails. And so the woes pile up, one on top of the other

until catastrophe looms… and swiftly so. Even their well-known prolific breeding habits, known to

all, cannot save them… without our immediate assistance. Thankfully a measure of that assistance is

now at hand… Under an agreement announced in April, 2011, the New Hampshire

Fish and Game Department will work with private landowners in Cheshire, Hillsborough,

Merrimack, Rockingham and Strafford counties to help restore the thickets during the next 50 years.

The goal is to enroll 3,000 to 5,000 acres to be managed as cottontail habitat. The agreement in New

Hampshire allows the Fish and Game Department to provide assurance to volunteering landowners

that their conservation work “won’t jeopardize the future use or value of the land if the species is

eventually federally listed,” said Steve Weber, chief of the department’s wildlife division. Such

federal listing as an endangered species is probable since the cottontail was listed in 2006 as a

candidate under the Endangered Species Act. Now the good people of New Hampshire can make a

start at preserving the cottontails by cutting vegetation to promote shrub development, planting

seeds, controlling invasive plants, and transferring some rabbits to the newly created habitats. It is

good… but is it enough… and in time? A candid conclusion. For thousands of years, New England

cottontails were self-sufficient, thank you very much. Then we, homo sapiens, descended, spreading

dislocation, disaster, death. Now the future of these silky creatures is in our hands. Surely a great

An Earth Day Wish


nation that can put members of our species on the moon can make a few bucks available to save

them and give them the little they need to survive. But will we? That is the open question that

demands the right answer, for really what do a few rabbits matter in the scheme of things? Here is

the righteous answer: if we will not protect the small and meek like the cottontails, how can we be

expected to do what’s necessary to protect ourselves and the planet? We are all, you see, endangered

together. When will we finally come to understand? * * * * * About The Author Harvard-educated

Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small

and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training,

earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and

more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by

getting a free Associate Membership today at http://20waystoprofit.com/associates Dr. Lant is also a

syndicated writer and author of 18 best-selling business books. Details at JeffreyLantArticles.com

These articles are published with the permission of Dr. Lant to Patrice Porter

http://www.20waystoprofit.com

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An Earth Day Wish


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An Earth Day Wish

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