Butterflies

Everyone loves to see butterflies in the spring and summer... colourful jewels which brighten our day... but, although I live in the countryside, I have noticed their number reducing slowly in the last couple of years...

(Peacock)

Butterflies (and moths as well) are key indicators of the state of the natural world because of their short life-spans and complex lifecycles. Their lifecycles (egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly) have specific environmental needs to survive each stage, reach adulthood and produce the next generation. Their presence or absence provides a rapid and undeniable indication of the health of the environment.

(Large White)

This summer, however, I have seen many more butterflies around. Does it mean a pollution decrease or simply that they have adapted to our environment changes?

(Small Tortoiseshell)

Earth Hour

The lovely Kia of http://www.italiancozycorner.be/Blog.html has just reminded me of

Earth Hour.

Tonight March 28th 2009, at 8.30 pm (wherever you are), WWF is encouraging us all to turn our lights off for an Earth Hour (so 20:30 to 21:30), in protest against the inaction of governments on the issue of climate change. And to show how easy it is to do something about it.

Around 50 million people took part last year. In 2009, WWF want this to be 1 billion.

Just ONE small thing can make a BIG difference.

See http://www.earthhour.org/home

Let’s try it, shall we?