A Long-Shot Bid to Save the Monarch Butterfly
Conservationists hoping to protect a threatened wild species tend to take a standard set of actions. These can involve political campaigns, lawsuits, and media outreach. But sometimes it\u2019s the unexpected approaches that can make the difference. Over the past several years, artist Jane Kim has been creating large-scale public murals of the monarch butterfly, an insect that\u2019s in a state of crisis. Recent surveys indicate the that the population of the western monarch in California has plummeted to below 30,000, down from 4.5 million in the mid-1980s. Kim\u2019s latest work is a painting in San Francisco's Tenderloin district that wraps three sides of a 13-story building and includes a 50-foot-tall monarch. It\u2019s suddenly one of the most dramatic features in the city\u2019s skyline. The question now is whether this extraordinary piece of public art will spur the actions really needed to save the species\u2014or become a tribute to a once beautiful butterfly.