The fate of the monarchs is up to us
The fate of this butterfly is in our hands.
Monarch butterfly populations are collapsing.
Monarch butterfly populations are collapsing.1 To keep these beloved pollinators from perishing, we must expand their protections, restore their habitat, and stop spraying pesticides that kill them.
We’ve set a goal of raising $15,000 for the end of our fiscal year so we can do what must be done to save the monarchs from extinction. Will you donate today?
What’s driving the monarch butterfly towards extinction?
For hundreds upon hundreds of years, each fall these delicate creatures have formed a mighty atmospheric river of orange and black, with streams of migrating monarchs converging on their return to the Mexican forests where they spend their winters.2
Today, the river has slowed to a trickle. Says one researcher, “I’ve been studying monarchs since the 1980s, and I’ve seen a huge decline… And if this decline continues, then they’ll be gone.”3
Let that sink in: Monarchs gone. Forever.
Who’s driving the monarch on this path toward extinction?
- Developers and agribusiness interests are plowing under the milkweed that’s the sole source of food for monarch caterpillars.4
- Chemical companies are selling glyphosate to those developers and agribusinesses, which kills milkweed and other nectar-bearing flowers that monarchs depend on.5
- Illegal loggers are chopping away at the forest where the next generation of monarchs will overwinter.6
- Fossil fuel companies and their climate-changing products are triggering more powerful storms and more punishing droughts, which threaten monarchs at every turn on their seasonal migrations.7
In the wake of these threats, our choice is stark but clear: Allow these assaults on the natural world to go unchecked and watch the monarchs disappear forever. Or raise our voices to demand change so we can save the monarchs.
Support our work to save monarch butterflies.
We must insist that monarchs be granted the Endangered Species Act protections they deserve; that landowners, including our government, set aside more habitat, and plant more milkweed and nectar-bearing flowers, to feed the monarchs on their long journeys; and that everybody stop using pesticides such as glyphosate.
Thousands of Environmental Action supporters like you have answered the call.
Yet as our fiscal year comes to a close, we see that we must do more — including an expanded effort to recruit and mobilize more monarch defenders like you. And that takes time and money.
Environmental Action is ready to do what it takes. Will you donate today to save the monarchs?
- Liz Kimbrough, “Western monarch populations reach highest number in decades,” Mongabay, January 31, 2023.
- “Migration,” Monarch Joint Venture, last accessed June 14, 2023.
- Gaby Vinick, “‘If this decline continues, they’ll be gone’: Project works to boost monarch population,” Wisconsin Public Radio, June 5, 2023.
- David N. Zaya, Ian S. Pearse and Greg Spyreas, “Long-Term Trends in Midwestern Milkweed Abundances and Their Relevance to Monarch Butterfly Declines,” BioScience, March 8, 2017.
- David N. Zaya, Ian S. Pearse, Greg Spyreas, “Long-Term Trends in Midwestern Milkweed Abundances and Their Relevance to Monarch Butterfly Declines,” BioScience, March 8, 2017.
- “‘A cause for worry’: Mexico’s monarch butterflies drop by 26% in year,” The Guardian, February 25, 2021.
- “Intense winter storms caused ‘heartbreaking’ losses in Western monarch population,” Yale Climate Connections, June 1, 2023.