this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2025
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Yeah this is drinking straws vs private jets.
Growing up in the suburbs we raked all the leaves and packed them in plastic bags which were then picked up as trash (no recycling back then). We had hundreds of fireflies everywhere.
Today I'm on 3.5 acres, half of which I don't mow at all and the other half I don't rake the leaves. But there are still fewer fireflies than 40 years ago.
There are fewer everything. I've commented on the ecosystem collapse many time, don't have the energy any longer.
At least my yard is coming back. Our house is the reason the block has frogs, dragonflies, etc.
The bees and Monarch butterflies and Hummingbirds know where I live, which is about the best I can do locally.
Man! Now that you mention it I haven't seen monarch butterflies in my area for a few years now. We used to see thousands of them every late summer when they start their migration to Mexico. I feel sad now. :(
Plant milkweed. They’ll find it.
There are a couple monarch mimics that will also come to them (which is cool because they mimic each other to make their poison more effective, instead of pretending to be poisonous).
poisonous butterflies 🦋 ?? nooo
Same here. Used to get whole families of deer, rabbits, hedgehogs, squirrels etc eating our gardens goodies. Nowadays its lucky to catch a single magpie nibbling on an apple. Animals today are so damn picky. /s
The decline in insect populations is so bad even Jeremy Clarkson is trying to fight it.
That's how you know it's really bad.
It's all the pesticides we use in gardens and agriculture. It's in our air water everywhere decimating all kinds of insects.
Ok but part of this is because of what we were doing back then, so it isn’t quite the same. Yes there are larger things at play BUT these things you do locally on your 3.5 acres can have a huge impact.
But the problem I'm experiencing is that doing the "best" isn't helping much at all. It's like telling people that putting some greens in their aquarium will help their fish while at the same time the water in the aquarium is bleach.
Ok but the problem in this analogy is that collectively we were all pouring bleach into the aquarium, the fix is to collectively stop.
It won’t happen immediately and it won’t go back to where it was for a long time.
Yes there are larger factors at play but this is one of those scenarios where your local action has an actual impact that is noticeable.
You’re not wrong that you alone won’t solve it and the best you can do alone won’t fix it, but doing what you’re doing is closer to not adding your bleach to the fish tank but instead letting it have some water.