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Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
Climate change, along with habitat loss and exploitation, are accelerating extinction at a terrifying rate.
In 2019, we traveled with our colleagues to Michoacán, Mexico, to witness the great monarch butterfly migration. Scientists predicted that it may have been one of the last massive flourishes of this fast-dwindling phenomenon.
It can only be described as otherworldly to experience the great Eastern Monarch migration, where each winter millions of monarchs fly more than 2,500 miles south from Canada through the United States to Mexico.
At the end of their arduous journey, the butterflies’ fluttering tapestry of orange and black enveloped the clear blue Michoacán skies. Thick clusters of monarchs clothed oyamel trees to roost. The flapping of millions of pairs of wings bathed us in a sound dome like the pitter-patter of a summer rain.
Earth Week serves as a reality check that we have the tools to rapidly phase out the burning of fossil fuels driving our climate and extinction emergencies.
But the iconic monarch migration is at risk of being lost forever. And scientists say climate change is now the driving factor.
Though pesticides drove their initial decline in the early 2000s, the climate emergency has since taken the driver’s seat. Their migration is threatened year-round by severe and abnormal weather—winter storms, summer droughts, year-round forest fires.
Just this past winter, one of their overwintering forests in Mexico caught fire before all the monarchs took flight back north for spring. On the other end, warm temperatures are keeping them too long in the north and putting them at risk of fall freezes before they reach their overwintering grounds in Mexico.
The climate crisis—largely fueled by burning coal, oil and gas—is driving higher temperatures and severe storm events that threaten the butterflies’ ability to survive, as well as the growth of milkweed they feed on. Meanwhile, destruction of Mexican forests and the widespread use of toxic pesticides on grasslands and milkweed endanger the butterflies’ critical habitats, flyways, and sustenance.
This year, monarch numbers dropped by 59% in Mexico, to the second-lowest level in recorded history. The current population is only a sixth of the size scientists say is needed to avoid migratory collapse.
The migratory monarch is but one of the over 44,000 species around the globe that are known to be threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN.
And that’s just the species we have data for. IUCN found that 28% of assessed species are at risk of extinction. The United Nations multiplied that proportion of species at risk by the number of species on Earth and estimated that 1 million species could be gone in the coming decades, especially as profound climate threats are expected to grow.
Climate change, along with habitat loss and exploitation, are accelerating extinction at a terrifying rate. Humankind has never witnessed so many species being annihilated so quickly and in so many places. This is an existential threat to continued human life, and all life on Earth.
Consider the coral reefs now facing an ocean heat-induced mass bleaching event on track to be the most extensive on record. Coral reefs are the rainforests of the ocean that support a quarter of marine life and the livelihoods of half a billion people.
Meanwhile communities across the United States—disproportionately low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, and vulnerable workers—are suffering the intensifying consequences of climate chaos: fatal heatwaves and destructive wildfires, cycles of drought and catastrophic flooding.
2023 destroyed global heat records, and March temperatures marked the 10th record-breaking month in a row.
Last year saw a record 130 million Americans under heat alerts. Heat caused record-high rates of health emergencies. Arizona’s Maricopa County alone recorded a record 645 heat deaths.
Climate change combined with the hangover effect of the El Niño cycle may make this year even worse.
But Earth Week serves as a reality check that we have the tools to rapidly phase out the burning of fossil fuels driving our climate and extinction emergencies.
As the world’s top producer of the oil and gas driving the climate crisis, the United States has more power than any country on Earth to confront it. A suite of key actions across all agencies can launch us on the path forward:
We have no more time to waste. The nation’s Fifth National Climate Assessment found that every region of the country is suffering increasingly harmful effects from climate change.
And Americans understand it: 75,000 people hit the streets of New York City last year for the March to End Fossil Fuels, a movement the Center for Biological Diversity co-led with environmental justice and youth partners across the country.
Unfortunately, the politicians and fossil fuel corporations treating our planet as simply a source for profit and greed view our wildlife in much the same way. But everything in the world is connected, including the air we breathe, the water we drink, the lands and the climate that sustain us. When we destroy nature and what’s wild, we are writing humanity’s own death sentence. It may come later than other species, but it’s only a matter of time.
We can choose a different future for ourselves and the species around us, and this Earth Week is a great time to start.
We can commit to ending fossil fuels, locking in plans that are just and match the magnitude of the crisis that confronts us. And we can move with speed and urgency, as if all life on Earth depends on it. Because it does.
"Despite heroic efforts... we could still lose these extraordinary butterflies by not taking bolder action," warned one conservationist.
Wildlife conservationists sounded the alarm Wednesday as an annual count of monarch butterflies revealed a sharp decline in the number of the iconic insects hibernating in Mexican forests, stoking renewed fears of their extinction.
The annual survey—led by Mexico's National Commission of Natural Protected Areas and the Mexican branch of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF)—showed a 22% drop in the hibernating monarch population amid accelerating habitat loss driven primarily by deforestation.
"Despite heroic efforts to save monarchs by planting milkweed, we could still lose these extraordinary butterflies by not taking bolder action," Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said in a statement.
"Monarchs were once incredibly common," she added. "Now they're the face of the extinction crisis as U.S. populations crash amid habitat loss and the climate meltdown."
Renowned for its epic annual migrations from the northern U.S. and southern Canada to Florida, California, and Mexico, monarchs have suffered a precipitous plunge in population in North America this century.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the number of eastern monarchs fell from around 384 million in 1996 to 60 million in 2019, and in the West their numbers declined from 1.2 million in 1997 to fewer than 30,000 last year.
As CBD noted:
At the end of summer, eastern monarchs migrate from the northern United States and southern Canada to high-elevation fir forests in central Mexico. Scientists estimate the population size by measuring the area of trees turned orange by the clustering butterflies...The eastern population has been perilously low since 2008.
Last year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature formally listed the monarch butterfly as endangered, citing critical threats posed by the climate emergency, deforestation, pesticides, and logging.
(Graphic: Center for Biological Diversity)
In the United States, the Trump administration in 2020 placed monarchs on the wait list for consideration for Endangered Species Act protection. FWS has until next year to make a final listing determination.
"It is not just about conserving a species, it's also about conserving a unique migratory phenomenon in nature," said WWF Mexico general director Jorge Rickards. "Monarchs contribute to healthy and diverse terrestrial ecosystems across North America as they carry pollen from one plant to another."
"With 80% of agricultural food production depending on pollinators like monarchs, when people help the species, we are also helping ourselves," he added.
"We are currently experiencing and causing the Sixth Extinction—the mass extinction of species across the planet," said the head of NatureServe, which also found a third of plants nationwide are under threat.
Underscoring the need for humanity to overhaul its relationship with nature, 34% of plants species and 40% of animal species across the United States are at risk of extinction while 41% of U.S. ecosystems could collapse, according to an analysis published Monday by the nonprofit NatureServe.
"For 50 years, the NatureServe Network has been collecting the information necessary to understand biodiversity imperilment in the United States. This new analysis of that data, a first in 20 years, makes crystal clear the urgency of that work," said the group's vice president for data and methods, Regan Smyth.
"It's suicidal of us to pretend that business as usual is more important than safeguarding the natural world we all depend on."
"Two-fifths of our ecosystems are in trouble. Freshwater invertebrates and many pollinators, the foundation of a healthy, functional planet, are in precipitous decline," she pointed out. "Understanding and addressing these risks is critical if we are to forestall devastating consequences for the biodiversity that humanity needs to survive."
Noting that roughly a third of plants are in danger, the report—Biodiversity in Focus: United States Edition—explains that "this is an alarming general finding, but certain taxa face even greater threats. For example, 48% of cactus species are at risk of extinction, while around 200 tree species (about 20%) are at risk of extinction."
"Of the hundreds of grass species that form our nation's great prairies and marshes, about 19% are at risk of vanishing forever," the document states. "Preventing plant extinction is essential to maintaining ecosystem function and the services that wildlife and people rely upon."
\u201c\ud83d\udea8 NEW REPORT \ud83d\udea8 A new analysis from NatureServe reveals that over one-third of biodiversity in the United States is at risk of extinction. Read the report at:\nhttps://t.co/TceTuw3xgY\n\n#biodiversityinfocus\u201d— NatureServe (@NatureServe) 1675696459
As for animals, the analysis says that "as a group, species associated with fresh water, including amphibians, snails, mussels, crayfish, and many aquatic insects, have the highest percentage of at-risk species, highlighting the importance of conservation strategies to protect freshwater ecosystems."
"Among pollinators, bees are particularly threatened, with 37% of assessed species at risk," the report continues. "The conservation needs of these, and other invertebrate species, are often overlooked, yet many invertebrates are integral to maintaining the ecological functions of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems."
Ecosystems across the country face potential "range-wide collapse due to extensive threats such as land-cover conversion," the publication warns. "Tropical ecosystems in the U.S. are all under substantial risk, but account for relatively small proportions in number and area."
"Temperate grasslands, boreal grasslands, and shrublands stand out among highly threatened ecosystems that extend over vast areas of the country, with 51% of the 78 grassland types known to be at risk of range-wide collapse," the report adds. "Temperate forests, boreal forests, and woodlands have also experienced multiple pressures, leading to an at-risk status for 40% of the 107 types of native U.S. forests."
(Image: NatureServe)
NatureServe president and CEO Sean T. O'Brien stressed that "we are currently experiencing and causing the Sixth Extinction—the mass extinction of species across the planet. NatureServe's data highlight where the threats are right here at home."
"The plants, animals, and ecosystems found in our state, tribal, and federal lands are key components of our cultural and natural heritage," he said. "We should be proud of the biodiversity in our backyard and should prioritize protecting what is here, now."
The report is just the latest to emphasize the growing threat to various species. Others include the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, updated in December during a summit in Montreal that ultimately produced what many experts and advocates agree is a "weak" global framework to protect biodiversity.
The IUCN update revealed "a perfect storm of unsustainable human activity decimating marine life around the globe," Bruno Oberle, the group's director general, said at the time. He warned that "we urgently need to address the linked climate and biodiversity crises, with profound changes to our economic systems, or we risk losing the crucial benefits the oceans provide us with."
The NatureServe analysis provoked similar demands for action. As Reutersreported:
Vivian Negron-Ortiz, the president of the Botanical Society of America and a botanist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who was not involved in the NatureServe report, said there is still a lot scientists do not know and have not yet discovered about biodiversity in the United States, and that NatureServe's data helped illuminate that darkness.
More than anything, she sees the new data as a call to action.
"This report shows the need for the public to help prevent the disappearance of many of our plant species," she said. "The public can help by finding and engaging with local organizations that are actively working to protect wild places and conserve rare species."
Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement Monday that "this grim assessment adds to the mountain of science showing that we're creating an extinction crisis."
"It's suicidal of us to pretend that business as usual is more important than safeguarding the natural world we all depend on," Curry declared, spotlighting some potential solutions including the Extinction Prevention Act and Recovering America's Wildlife Act.
"Grassland loss is the biggest U.S. environmental disaster that gets the least attention," she said. "Conversion of grasslands to suburban sprawl and pesticide-intensive agriculture is a primary reason we've lost 3 billion birds and why we could lose monarch butterflies and vital pollinators."
"By taking nature for granted we've pushed natural systems to the brink of collapse," Curry continued. "We've been so neglectful for so long, but we can create a different world that doesn't exploit nature and vulnerable human communities for never-ending sprawl and consumption."