Dear John,
|
Stop Monsanto from driving monarch butterflies to extinction!
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
|
As the days grow short and the solstice approaches, many of us slow down and turn inward, toward preparation for the year ahead. The same is true for monarch butterflies, who are now clustered together in their millions on trees in their overwintering grounds. But today, these monarchs are facing extinction. Help save the monarch butterfly: Donate $10 or more to Friends of the Earth.
After a long summer of activity across North America, millions of these colorful creatures flew up to 3,000 miles south. It is one of the animal kingdom’s most spectacular migrations: No other insect in the world migrates such a distance, over several generations, to places it has never been before. Butterflies nestled in their overwintering grounds today are the great-great-grandchildren of the monarchs that left last spring.
But last year, the number of monarchs that reached their overwintering grounds in Mexico declined by 53%. Populations are plummeting across the board, and Monsanto’s Roundup is a key factor in this devastating die-off.
Help stop Monsanto from wiping out the monarchs! Rush a $10 donation to Friends of the Earth.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
For many years, the winter life of monarchs was a mystery. It wasn’t until 1975 that the scientific community finally tracked down where the monarchs go in the winter. Many of them end up in a tiny, six-hectare area of mountaintop forests in central Mexico, nearly two miles above sea level. There, millions of monarchs cluster together, densely packed, spending most of their winter covering the native Oyamel fir trees like a blanket. Other monarchs overwinter in sheltered bays along the California coast.
But over the last two decades, what used to be a flood of butterflies migrating south each year has dwindled to a trickle. At the same time, the amount of Roundup being used each year has increased dramatically. Use jumped from only 11 million pounds in 1987 to nearly 300 million pounds in 2016.
And across large swaths of the U.S., milkweed -- the only food young monarchs eat -- has been wiped out by Roundup, and the monarch butterflies that depend on it are being decimated.
What’s worse, a recent study found every single sample of milkweed tested was contaminated -- scientists found 64 different pesticides in the plants, and one third of samples contained pesticides at levels known to be deadly to monarchs.
This poisoning of the only food source for monarch caterpillars is one more devastating factor driving monarchs to the brink. And it’s all for the sake of corporate greed. Big Ag and fossil fuel corporations are driving monarch butterfly decline through pesticides, climate change, and habitat loss. The drive for profit at any cost is devastating our pollinators and our planet.
We can’t let Monsanto drive monarch butterflies to extinction. Support monarchs with a $10 donation to Friends of the Earth.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
At Friends of the Earth, we know how to stop Big Ag and save vulnerable species. It’s what we’re built for. Our strategy includes a nationwide ban on neonics and other toxic pesticides that kill bees and butterflies. At the same time, we’re pushing major grocery companies like Kroger to stop selling food grown with these chemicals. And we just launched a new campaign to move Home Depot and Lowe’s to follow Costco’s lead and pull Roundup from its shelves.
Together, we’ve already transformed the garden industry, including convincing Home Depot, Lowe’s, Costco, True Value, Ace Hardware and Walmart to eliminate bee-killing pesticides in garden plants. This is the kind of bold campaigning that can shift us away from pesticide-intensive agriculture and make pollinator- and people-friendly organic food available for all.
Our plan has the power to win comprehensive protections for monarch butterflies, people and the planet. But we’ve got to act fast, before these beautiful and iconic pollinators disappear forever.
Make a generous contribution today, and help Friends of the Earth save the monarchs and our food system!
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Thank you,
Lisa Archer,
Food and agriculture program director,
Friends of the Earth
