Nature going Sci-Fi?

Mark Edwards

The birds, bees and butterflies are disappearing, threatening our peace of mind and happiness.

Research shows a 90 percent decline in Monarch butterflies over 20 years. Iowa has historically been a prime territory for their birth and migration.

The shocking decline is being attributed to use of herbicides and loss of habitat. Their only source of food, the milkweed, continues to be eradicated to 'feed the world.”

While angry birds increase on screen, bird-watchers and ornithologists are seeing steady decline outdoors. Study after study, survey after survey shows a worrisome downward trend in populations. A recent National Audubon Society report shows some widespread species thought to be secure have decreased as much as 80 percent since 1967.

Lightning bugs, moths and butterflies from our childhood are also disappearing. These 'canaries in cornfields” are a symbol of biological problems.

In 2013, roughly 86 percent of Iowa's 36 million acres were covered in three annual crops - corn, beans and hay. Six percent was used for animal confinement operations, timbered pastures, the Conservation Reserve Program and farmsteads. Cities and roads require another 6 for a total of 98 percent biologically altered for our needs and desires.

This means we have to import 86 percent of what we eat, which travels an average of 1,500 miles to get here. This is unsustainable for us and other organisms trying to live here.

What can be done? Over the past 50 years the population of domestic honey bees has dropped 50 percent. The increasing loss of bees decreased agriculture production, prompting the President to create a task force. The scientists have been working on a win-win approach to address the function bees provide.

Some Harvard scientists believe we can replace dead bees with drones, small micro-aerial machines. These robot-bees will pollinate on command. They can be programmed to fertilize only certain plants we find necessary or desirable.

Young people with hours of techno gaming skills will be in high demand to direct the bee-bots. This will allow live-at-home, unemployed, debt-ridden people to be 'workers” in this new economy. They can develop their skills on flowers and then graduate to more technical applications by flying fake birds, delivering packages and domestic surveillance. Who knows what other opportunities will arise militarily overseas and in fabricating the natural world.

Due to nature's poor managerial model other insects and food will be required to feed remaining birds, deteriorating soil and people. From an engineering perspective, drones will soon be redesigned with digestible materials.

In the near future, bees might become unnecessary and only in our heads. With the technology available now we could all be drone drivers exploring the new world safely from inside our homes. We might even become drones ourselves, finally solving the 'beam me up Scottie” mystery of the Star Trek series.

Living in the presence of Sci-Fi I've learned you can't use butterfly language to communicate with drones and people who don't understand. In fact, you can't live in fiction or without butterflies. I hope to support and continue practicing with real birds and bees.

' Mark Edwards is retired from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Comments: markedwards60@gmail.com.