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Monarch Butterfly Population Plummets in California
The population of monarch butterflies that spend winter along the California coast dropped 86 percent since 2017, according to a recent count by the Xerces Society, an invertebrate conservation group.
Preliminary results from the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count, an annual citizen science program, recorded less than 30,000 butterflies overwintering in California, a significant decline from the estimated 192,000 in 2017. The official numbers will be released later this month.
Emma Pelton, a Xerces Society endangered species conservation biologist, wrote in a blog post that the initial results are "disturbingly low" and perhaps "catastrophic."
"While overwintering populations naturally fluctuate, even by double digit percentages, the magnitude of this year's drop is of significant concern because the monarch population was already at a new low after the 97 percent decline it has experienced since the 1980s ( Schultz et al. 2017), leading to a situation which may be catastrophic for the western population," Pelton wrote.
The 30,000 butterflies counted is the average quasi-extinction population size—or "the number of adult butterflies needed to ensure persistence of the western monarch population," Pelton explained.
It is not yet clear why their numbers were so low in 2018, although prolonged drought, a late rainy season, as well as smoke and poor air quality caused by the region's devastating wildfires could be to blame, Pelton suggested.
The latest count adds to more bad news for the iconic species, whose numbers have precipitously declined.
"In my lifetime, the monarch population in California has gone from millions of butterflies to hundreds of thousands and now, possibly, mere tens of thousands," Pelton wrote, noting that one study estimated 4.5 million monarchs overwintering in California in the 1980s.
"Next year will be a real test in how resilient the western monarch population is, after its California overwintering population has been reduced to less than 0.5 percent of its historical size," she added.
Scientists warn that the black-and-orange butterflies—known for their annual, 3,000-mile migration from the U.S. and Canada to Mexico—is at risk of extinction.
Overall, the monarch population has dropped by more than 80 percent over the past two decades. Their disappearance has been linked to climate change, habitat loss, pesticides and reduced milkweed, a native wildflower and main food source for monarch caterpillars and the only plant on which adult monarchs lay their eggs.
Despite the grim report, there are ways you can help the survival of the beloved species, which are also crucial pollinators for many different kinds of wildflowers.
"While western monarchs are facing unprecedented challenges right now, there is still hope that we can recover the population if we work quickly, strategically and together," Pelton said.
Learn more about how you can help.
Britain's Prince William interviewed famed broadcaster David Attenborough on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Switzerland.
During the sit-down, the 92-year-old naturalist advised the world leaders and business elite gathered in Davos this week that we must respect and protect the natural world, adding that the future of its survival—as well as humanity's survival—is in our hands.
Electric vehicle sales took off in 2018, with a record two million units sold around the world, according to a new Deloitte analysis.
What's more, the accounting firm predicts that another 21 million electric cars will be on the road globally over the next decade due to growing market demand for clean transportation, government subsidies, as well as bans on fossil fuel cars.
By Matthew Savoca
Plastic pollution in the world's oceans has become a global environmental crisis. Many people have seen images that seem to capture it, such as beaches carpeted with plastic trash or a seahorse gripping a cotton swab with its tail.
As a scientist researching marine plastic pollution, I thought I had seen a lot. Then, early in 2017, I heard from Alex Weber, a junior at Carmel High School in California.
Greenland is melting about four times faster than it was in 2003, a new study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found, a discovery with frightening implications for the pace and extent of future sea level rise.
"We're going to see faster and faster sea level rise for the foreseeable future," study lead author and Ohio State University geodynamics professor Dr. Michael Bevis said in a press release. "Once you hit that tipping point, the only question is: How severe does it get?"
Finally, some good news about the otherwise terrible partial government shutdown. A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot issue permits to conduct seismic testing during the government impasse.
The Justice Department sought to delay—or stay—a motion filed by a range of coastal cities, businesses and conservation organizations that are suing the Trump administration over offshore oil drilling, Reuters reported. The department argued that it did not have the resources it needed to work on the case due to the shutdown.
Most people have heard of the Amazon, South America's famed rainforest and hub of biological diversity. Less well known, though no less critical, is the Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland.
Like the Amazon, the Pantanal is ecologically important and imperiled. Located primarily in Brazil, it also stretches into neighboring Bolivia and Paraguay. Covering an area larger than England at more than 70,000 square miles, the massive wetland provides irreplaceable ecosystem services that include the regulation of floodwaters, nutrient renewal, river flow for navigability, groundwater recharge and carbon sequestration. The wetland also supports the economies of the four South American states it covers.
By Andrea Germanos
Organizers said 35,000 people marched through the streets of the German capital on Saturday to say they're "fed up" with industrial agriculture and call for a transformation to a system that instead supports the welfare of the environment, animals and rural farmers.
EVs 101: Your Guide to Electric Vehicles
By Patrick Rogers
If you have ever considered making the switch to an environmentally friendly electric vehicle, don't drag your feet. Though EV prices are falling, and states are unveiling more and more public charging stations and plug-in-ready parking spots, the federal government is doing everything it can to slam the brakes on our progress away from gas-burning internal combustion engines. President Trump, likely pressured by his allies in the fossil fuel industry, has threatened to end the federal tax credits that have already helped put hundreds of thousands of EVs on the road—a move bound to harm not only our environment but our economy, too. After all, the manufacturing and sale of EVs, hybrids, and plug-in hybrids supported 197,000 jobs in 2017, according to the most recent U.S. Energy and Employment Report.