1000 Flowers for the Planet - #563 Save the Monarch Butterfly

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #563 Save the Monarch Butterfly

Numbers of the Monarch butterfly in North America have decreased by 90% since the early 1990s, due to pesticides killing the milkweed plant on which the caterpillar depends for survival. This is a small example of the high price being paid when we use pesticides. Species become endangered and eventually they are wiped out altogether. We can keep planting milkweed in an effort to increase Monarch butterfly numbers, but this is only one part of the solution. As long as pesticides keep wiping out great masses of plant species, the chain reaction will continue to be a struggled existence for many animal species. You can learn more about this species and their plight at http://www.saveourmonarchs.org/ as well as ways to help. The statistics vary, and it’s not an easy thing to calculate, but on average we’re losing 3 species every hour, so it’s important we do something to slow and eventually halt that process – at least due to human causes. Everything is interconnected. Monarch butterflies are part of the whole process and provide food for other species, as larvae, caterpillars and butterflies. Let’s not keep breaking the chain. Look after the Monarch butterfly in your corner of the world.