The phrase you are referring to originated in the poem, "Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" by Alexander Pope. In this poem, he says, "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" Gentner & Wolff describe this phrase as encouraging the reader to, "imagine stretching a butterfly on a rack; the very difficulty of doing so invites the image of one so insubstantial as to be unworthy of torture". In a sense then, it means putting forth tremendously more effort than is required in a particular situation. Do you need to go through the trouble of using something as violent as the wheel (or Catherine) to kill a butterfly? The wheel is much more excessive than necessary.

I don't know the song. I google the lyric, it might be a reference to an old form of torture. Long ago, a wheel was used to break a persons bones, to cause them pain. 'Breaking' a person using torture. A famous man was once quoted in saying 'who breaks a butterfly on a wheel', meaning 'how pointless it is to use such a strong form of force on something so delicate and helpless' so perhaps the meaning of the lyric is something like 'something so strong, so completely overpowering, can destroy us'. Honestly, I find coldplays lyrics a little too abstract. Don't search too much for meaning, they often just put ideas and words together that sound good, that have a pleasing line of thought, without much deep meaning.Therefore, the meaning is what you bring to it yourself :)

It means to use a ridiculously excessive amount of effort or force. "Honey, could you hang this picture for me?" "OK, but all I have is this old screwdriver. I'm going to go to the hardware store and buy that Milwaukee Cordless Impact Wrench that's on sale for only $335." "I think that would be breaking a butterfly on a wheel." It's a literary allusion and it isn't used very often.

IF there is a meaning, then it should be clear by the context you gave us. Understanding a sentence in a language should absolutely NOT imply searching the internet. Unless it is from an ancient language.

It could be: The roads are not healthy for the wildlife.