Multi-coloured butterfly

No longer do you flutter by

In myriad colours, countless numbers,

Bright against the summer sky.

Man's selfishness, his utter greed,

Of butterflies he has no need,

His chemicals scar this once lush earth

Denying you the right of birth.

It s sad to realize that today's children and their children later will not witness clouds of butterflies and moths of many species like I enjoyed as a child.

Within the past forty years so much of our wildlife has become impoverished. In fact, over half of our best-loved species have declined in that short time. We are not alone. It is a worldwide problem. For example, in the Puerto Rican rain forest 98% of ground dwelling insects have vanished in the past thirty years while those inhabiting the leaf canopy have declined by 80%. Numbers of frogs that depend on insects have dropped by 50%  while insect eating birds in the forest declined by 90%. Only seed and berry eating numbers are stable.

This global decline in insects is caused by a combination of man's activities including climate change which may be more significant than at first thought, habitat loss, pollution, pesticides and invasive species. Insects are major pollinators of flora and crops so to lose so many gives great cause for concern.

So, researchers claim we are destroying the very life-systems that allows us to sustain our existence, even signalling the beginning of an ' insect armageddon'.