Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee: a political ecology of change

Before the arrival of trading ships, Hawaii did not have amphibians, reptiles or small mammals that preyed on insects. Birds were the predators they had to worry about. The island insects developed the strategy of dropping to the ground at the first sign of danger instead of taking to the air as they do in other places. Conditions have changed and today the ground crawls with fauna eager to feast on bugs. The insects continue to do what worked for them in the past. They drop to the ground for safety. They are eaten in large numbers. They can't bring back the past no matter how much act as though it's still here. Whether they'll survive depends on whether they can adapt to a world that has changed.

One more thing. It turns out that the darkest hour isn't the one just before dawn. It's the one just before we remove the blindfold.

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