In 1992, an amendment was made to the Clean Air Act in the US, aimed at reducing the release of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere to reduce air pollution. Part of the law mandated that the gasoline in automobiles must have a minimum amount of oxygenate additive, a chemical compound that helps fuel burn more completely and thus limits the soot and carbon monoxide released into the air when it’s burned. From 1992 to 2005, the most popular oxygenate for gasoline was Methyl Tert Butyl Ether, or MTBE. But in in the early 2000s a number of cases of MTBE contaminating groundwater raised concerns about its health effects, spurring a number of high-profile lawsuits. In 2004, both New York and California banned the chemical from the state, a big blow …show more content…
So in addition to clearing pristine lands in the Great Plains where milkweed thrives, farmers have increasingly adopted genetically modified crops, which are resistant to herbicides like RoundUp. In other words, they can have all of the crops and none of the weeds. Naturally this poses a serious danger to the population of the Monarch butterfly, which has fallen a mind-blowing 90% since its peak in 1996. The losses of milkweed are only part of the reason why the Monarch population is crashing. Illegal deforestation of their winter home in Mexico and a couple years of bad weather have hurt the ability for monarch to make their long journeys south and north again — but even when the conditions are right, Monarchs now have to fly farther and longer to find places to lay their eggs. Often they die before doing so. No one is talking about the extinction of the Monarch just yet, but a 56% loss of Monarch population in one year (2013) is nothing to sneeze at. Both America and Mexico have pledged to do what’s necessary to save the Monarch. If you’re interested in helping, you can research how to build butterfly sanctuaries in your backyard. To me, this is an amazing story. Legislation passed by US years ago to fight pollution
Three different things are endangering the monarch butterfly. First, is the deforestation of Mexico. Through
The anatomy of the monarch starts with it coloring. The monarch butterfly is bright orange with a white spots in a black margin around the
Sadly, the monarch butterflies are drastically decreasing due to the fact that the plant they need to survive, the milkweed plant, is slowly but surely diminishing.
There has been a 90% decline of monarch butterflies from last year population (Francis Skalicky, Aug 30,2017 from Monarch butterfly population has declined 90 percent over the span of ... ).Chemical pollution has a really big effect on the decline of monarch butterflies. People using herbicide on crops are killing them. Using pesticides on their plants decline their population. The monarchs face predators along the way which may cause the population to be
Fish and Wildlife Service compiled some data that shows that close to a billion monarch butterflies have disappeared since 1990. A leading reason into the disappearance is thought to be because of the use of certain pesticides and herbicides used on the milkweed plants, the primary life source for the butterfly. Farmers in the Midwest use the chemicals to destroy the milkweeds around their crops. They also use seeds that have been modified to tolerate herbicides but also destroys the milkweed plants. To counteract the loss, environmentalists urge creating Monarch Waystations, gardens that include the milkweed plants the caterpillars eat and the nectar plants they feed upon as adults. There are also two species closely related to the milkweed plant that the monarch may mistakenly use to lay eggs on, Cyanchum louisae and Cyanchum rassicum. The poisons from these plants kill the caterpillar once it begins to feed upon their leaves unlike the milkweed leaves that the caterpillar can tolerate. The monarch is also captured and killed by collectors to be placed on
While society has impacted this alteration, climate change has also made a significant imprint. This study “assesses the extinction risks to species within an important genus of pollinating bees by estimating the expected changes in the area and isolation of suitable habitat under predicted climatic condition for 2050.” (Roberts, S. P., Potts, S. G., Biesmeijer, K., Kuhlmann, M., Kunin, B., & Ohlemüller, R., 2011) Climate change has caused bees to migrate from their native environments. The loss of these bees have begun to effect various types of plants, some of which are beginning to perish. Therefore scientist are in pursuit of a suitable habitat. One in which expresses the origin of edible plants, as well as climatic suitability. (Roberts, S. P., Potts, S. G., Biesmeijer, K., Kuhlmann, M., Kunin, B., & Ohlemüller, R.,
The eastern flutters of monarch butterflies are thought to be in danger, thanks to natural disasters in Mexico and there not being enough milkweed in their summer nesting grounds(National Geographic). Global warming and loss of habitat also effect the migratory patterns and the rainfall(National Wildlife Federation). “In 1996, the Mexican government created the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve to protect monarch’s wintering habitat(US Fish and Wildlife
They discuss the variety of sources used to collect data and where they gathered data from in both Non-agricultural habitats and Agricultural habitats. They then present the following: “ Estimates of the amount of milkweed in non-agricultural habitats, agricultural fields and total milkweeds in Iowa from 1999 to 2010,” (10) as a table. They then point out their sources for the data they used on land use. They acknowledge that their land use data were published in 2006 and is therefore somewhat out of date, however, they anticipate that the numbers were still similar when they published their paper. Next, they estimate the monarch use of non-agricultural milkweed and provide data on the “monarch use of milkweeds in agricultural fields,” (10). Their data points to the conclusion that monarchs use agricultural milkweed at a greater frequency than non-agricultural milkweed. In the final subsection of the methods section Pleasants and Oberhausen estimate the potential monarch
When it is cold outside in the United States of America, monarch butterflies migrate to warmer places such as Mexico. This contributes to the decline of monarchs because in Mexico they are having deforestation problems. For example, there have been late winter storms causing over 100 acres of trees to fall down in Central Mexico (Deere, 2017). This causes a problem because monarch butterflies will have no place to live during the winter months in the United States of America. Researchers say that during the storm over 6.2 million butterflies have died (Deere, 2017). That is a lot of butterflies. This is a major problem because monarch butterflies are a food source for many animals and if they go extinct the food cycle will get messed up. This is a hard problem to fix to try to stop the decline of monarchs because you would have to get the monarchs to migrate to another place with lots of trees and that will not be destroyed.
Monarchs wanted to increase the size of their armies,You might be asking what is a monarch and how did they increase their armies.Well monarchs are people born into the family that is already in rule.Absolute monarchs is a king or queen that thinks all the power rests in their hands and that there is no limit.Now monarchs increased the size of their armies by raiseing taxes.But like most things there is a down fall.The peasants did not like this so
Mexico was once the locations where large colonies of monarch butterflies migrated to. However in the recent years the size of the colonies have began to shrink. The monarch butterflies tend to hibernate in the winter in reserve forests. It is believed one reason for the decline of monarch butterflies migrating to the reserve forests in Mexico is because of the number of insects in these forests had increased along with the destruction of these forrest. Another reason for monarch butterflies migrating to these different areas is to follow their food source which is the milkweed. The milkweed was at one time found in large numbers through out Canda. However due to climate changes throughout North America which included freezing teperatures and
According to National Geographic monarch butterflies travel up to 3,000 miles each fall to their wintering site in central Mexico. In 2004, an estimated 550 million completed the winter migration, while in 2003 only 33 million arrived. Further, between 2012 and 2013, there was a 43.7 percent decrease in the area occupied by the butterflies in the winter sanctuaries, the decline has numerous reasons: climate change, deforestation, and habitat loss, agricultural use of pesticides and herbicides
Recent disasters and human pressures at the overwintering sites have made the Monarch susceptible to a catastrophic decline in numbers that could potentially push the North American population of the Monarch to the brink of extinction” (Lafontaine and Crolla). The quote mentions that the monarchs are a part of history. It also mentions
Jeff Wells, a biologist who focuses on bird conservation, talked about many of different ways that birds are affected around the world by human influence. He pointed out the fact that the number of people who are interested in birds is increasing and is now up to about 40-70 million people. At the same time, however, the extinction rate of birds has doubled and is continuing to increase. In other words, as the number of people interested in birds has increased, the numbers of birds are declining, with increasing extinction rates.
Regulations require that new coal-burning plants must install expensive scrubbers in their smokestacks to remove most of the dioxides (see POLLUTION CONTROL). Other possible measures include burning only low-sulfur oil or coal, or removing the sulfur from coal with high sulfur content. Amendments have been proposed to the 1970 Clean Air Act that are designed to reduce sulfur and nitrogen emissions. The costs of such measures are considerable, however, and who should pay them continues to arouse controversy.