Where Did All the Butterflies In Lagos Go?

July 2013 appears to me to have been colder than previous years.  Is this also a global warming wakeup call?   I wonder.  What is the whole hullabaloo surrounding global warming, one might ask?

In simple terms, it’s about the quality and wealth of our lives:  pleasurable lives, the warmth of family, and our homes filled with the laughter of healthy children.  We can peer through the dewy-misty panes in the morning and enjoy the beauty all around: Birds chirping, take in huge gulps of the sweet heady smell of fresh flowers, and enjoy the calm and stillness of early morning.

I can still smell the haunting and enchanting white flowers of the majestic Queen of the Night that serenaded us while I slept as a young person growing up in Lagos. This plant daintily perfumes the air as far as a quarter-mile away. 

Come to think of it, where did all the dainty Butterflies in Lagos go?

Honestly, where have all the butterflies gone?  What of the grasshoppers and praying mantis we startled on the way to school?  The magical fireflies that we caught to test how much light they could radiate? As a young girl growing up in Lagos, I was accustomed to the sights and sounds of nature and played outdoors most of the time.

I remember that we had wooded areas and bushes down our street and as children; we would explore and enjoy what nature had to offer. Today, children only see butterflies and grasshoppers in school biology books. Ugh!

Indeed, come to think of it, where did all the beautiful and delicately patterned butterflies go? Chased away by the heavy, choking smoke of generators that run all night and all day? Pollution?  Indeed, where did all the beauty go?

Today, we build tall security fences laced with barbed wire to keep out intruders and violators.  Our children watch the world trapped behind the bars of their caged lives. No opportunities to explore, enjoy the free and best things life has  to offer.