"This reprieve from bad news on monarchs is a thank-you from the butterflies to all the people who planted native milkweeds and switched to organic corn and soy products," said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. "But one good weather year won't save the monarch in the long run, and more protections are needed for this migratory wonder and its summer and winter habitats."
In 2014 conservationists led by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the butterfly under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service's initial decision was that endangered species protection may be warranted, and a final decision will be issued by June.
"The question is whether the Trump administration wants to do Monsanto's bidding or protect monarchs for future generations," said George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety. "This year's count is a temporary reprieve that doesn't change what the law and science demands, which is that we protect monarchs under the Endangered Species Act before it's too late."
As recently as the mid-1990s, monarchs covered nearly 21 hectares of forest in their wintering ground, falling to less than 1 hectare in 2014. Scientists estimate that 6 hectares is the threshold to be out of the immediate danger zone of migratory collapse.
About 99 percent of all North American monarchs migrate each winter to oyamel fir forests on 12 mountaintops in central Mexico. Scientists from World Wildlife Fund Mexico estimate the population size by measuring the area of trees turned orange by the clustering butterflies.
Monarch butterflies west of the Rocky Mountains overwinter on the coast of California. Their numbers dropped to fewer than 30,000 this year, down from 1.2 million two decades ago.
A recent study found that if current trends continue, the western population has a 63 percent chance of extinction in 20 years and more than an 80 percent chance of extinction within 50 years. The western population is now at the threshold of extinction.
The caterpillars only eat milkweed, but the plant has been devastated by increased herbicide spraying in conjunction with corn and soybean crops that have been genetically engineered to tolerate direct spraying with herbicides. In addition to glyphosate, monarchs are threatened by other herbicides and by neonicotinoid insecticides that are toxic to young caterpillars.
Climate change also threatens to disrupt the monarch's migration and render its overwintering habitats unsuitable by the end of the century.
5 Ways to Make a Difference in the Life of a #Monarch @HFSciencePub @jnp_mn @BetteAStevens https://t.co/ZDP5MNdneR— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1543329699.0
Eye-Catching Designs Made from Recycled Plastic Bottles
The company sells a range of eco-friendly items like leggings, rash guards, and board shorts that are made using recycled post-consumer plastic bottles. There are currently 16 causes represented by distinct marine-life patterns, from whale shark research and invasive lionfish removal to sockeye salmon monitoring and abalone restoration.
One such organization is Get Inspired, a nonprofit that specializes in ocean restoration and environmental education. Get Inspired founder, marine biologist Nancy Caruso, says supporting on-the-ground efforts is one thing that sets Waterlust apart, like their apparel line that supports Get Inspired abalone restoration programs.
"All of us [conservation partners] are doing something," Caruso said. "We're not putting up exhibits and talking about it — although that is important — we're in the field."
Waterlust not only helps its conservation partners financially so they can continue their important work. It also helps them get the word out about what they're doing, whether that's through social media spotlights, photo and video projects, or the informative note card that comes with each piece of apparel.
"They're doing their part for sure, pushing the information out across all of their channels, and I think that's what makes them so interesting," Caruso said.
And then there are the clothes, which speak for themselves.
Advocate Apparel to Start Conversations About Conservation
Waterlust's concept of "advocate apparel" encourages people to see getting dressed every day as an opportunity to not only express their individuality and style, but also to advance the conversation around marine science. By infusing science into clothing, people can visually represent species and ecosystems in need of advocacy — something that, more often than not, leads to a teaching moment.
"When people wear Waterlust gear, it's just a matter of time before somebody asks them about the bright, funky designs," said Waterlust's CEO, Patrick Rynne. "That moment is incredibly special, because it creates an intimate opportunity for the wearer to share what they've learned with another."
The idea for the company came to Rynne when he was a Ph.D. student in marine science.
"I was surrounded by incredible people that were discovering fascinating things but noticed that often their work wasn't reaching the general public in creative and engaging ways," he said. "That seemed like a missed opportunity with big implications."
Waterlust initially focused on conventional media, like film and photography, to promote ocean science, but the team quickly realized engagement on social media didn't translate to action or even knowledge sharing offscreen.
Rynne also saw the "in one ear, out the other" issue in the classroom — if students didn't repeatedly engage with the topics they learned, they'd quickly forget them.
"We decided that if we truly wanted to achieve our goal of bringing science into people's lives and have it stick, it would need to be through a process that is frequently repeated, fun, and functional," Rynne said. "That's when we thought about clothing."
Support Marine Research and Sustainability in Style
To date, Waterlust has sold tens of thousands of pieces of apparel in over 100 countries, and the interactions its products have sparked have had clear implications for furthering science communication.
For Caruso alone, it's led to opportunities to share her abalone restoration methods with communities far and wide.
"It moves my small little world of what I'm doing here in Orange County, California, across the entire globe," she said. "That's one of the beautiful things about our partnership."
Check out all of the different eco-conscious apparel options available from Waterlust to help promote ocean conservation.
Melissa Smith is an avid writer, scuba diver, backpacker, and all-around outdoor enthusiast. She graduated from the University of Florida with degrees in journalism and sustainable studies. Before joining EcoWatch, Melissa worked as the managing editor of Scuba Diving magazine and the communications manager of The Ocean Agency, a non-profit that's featured in the Emmy award-winning documentary Chasing Coral.
So when the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety came to us concerned about a project that threatens the fragile southern California desert, we were ready.
The Backstory
Cadiz, Inc. is a public company that owns private land in a valley just east of Joshua Tree National Park and adjacent to the Sheephole Valley Wilderness, an area that's been called Joshua Tree's "untamed cousin." The company acquired land in Cadiz Valley in the 1980s, drilled a well, and began a small-scale farming operation, which helped it to establish water rights. It became clear almost immediately that Cadiz's true plan was not to farm, but rather to extract water from beneath the desert to sell to residents of southern California at a steep profit. The company's own website acknowledges that as early as 1984 it was investigating the "potential of the aquifer system" beneath its property.
Cadiz's visions of water extraction have ebbed and flowed over the years, and have now crystallized into a behemoth plan to extract 16 billion gallons of water—annually—from beneath the Mojave Desert.
This is a terrible idea for at least two reasons.
First and foremost, such a massive extraction of water from beneath the desert will have devastating consequences for the many species that live in and rely on the Mojave Desert ecosystem. A recent study published earlier this year confirmed what has long been suspected: that the groundwater in this region is interconnected—or in scientist's terms, "hydrologically linked." As a result, the authors of the study warned that reducing groundwater in this area will result in a "potentially substantial decrease in free-flowing water" at natural springs in the area.
Natural springs in the desert, like the beautiful Bonanza Springs, are a critical source of water for a wide range of desert critters, including frogs, migrating birds, bighorn sheep and several threatened or endangered species. (Check out our client's recent declaration about the impacts the Cadiz project would have on the desert here.) Cadiz's project is likely to put many of these species at risk.
Second, the water beneath Cadiz is contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing chemical that was at the center of the movie "Erin Brockovich." Cadiz insists the contamination is naturally occurring, and it has promised to treat it, although it admits the water has been found to contain at least 16 parts per billion of hexavalent chromium.
The federal limit on hexavalent chromium is currently 100 parts per billion, which most environmental advocacy groups agree is woefully inadequate to protect public health. The State of California acted to protect consumers in 2014 by lowering its standard on hexavalent chromium from 50 to 10 parts per billion—which would have put Cadiz's water well above the new state limit. Unfortunately, a court overturned California's protective 10 part-per-billion limitation in late 2017. California still plans to issue a new, lowered limit on hexavalent chromium within the next two years, which means Cadiz might be subject to even more legal hurdles in 2019. In the meantime, the company's plans to pursue this ill-fated project in spite of the apparent contamination and the threats to endangered desert species make it all the more clear that its only true motivation is profit.
The Legal Fight
The Obama administration recognized the immense value of protecting this fragile desert ecosystem and its natural and scientific treasures. In 2016, President Obama designated a large swath of this public land—over 1.6 million acres—the Mojave Trails National Monument, placing the land under the protection of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
To extract and ship water into the Los Angeles area, Cadiz must build a pipeline that crosses through the national monument. Its proposed pathway is along a former railroad right-of-way that runs roughly from Chambless, California, down to Rice. The Obama administration had made clear that the federal government would not approve such a pipeline, concluding in 2011 that Cadiz's pipeline bears no relation to a "railroad purpose."
Shortly after Trump took office, the administration abruptly reversed course, rescinding the Obama administration determinations and announcing that railroads can lease their land to third parties without seeking approval from the BLM to cross public lands.
Shortly thereafter, Earthjustice filed a complaint in federal court with the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety against the BLM. We've alleged violations of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.
The federal government moved to dismiss our case, but we scored an early victory in June of this year when the court ruled in our favor, concluding that our clients had standing to sue, and that the government's actions are subject to judicial review.
Shortly after that ruling, Cadiz itself intervened in the case and it is now collaborating with the federal government to fight the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Cadiz has released a spate of shiny new ads supporting the water project, along with a cheesy water counter that warns that 5.9 billion gallons of water have already been "lost" to evaporation this year. By suggesting that "Inland Empire families and businesses" ought to unite against "water waste" in the desert, Cadiz is craftily implying that the natural ecosystem is not an appropriate recipient of water, and that only human uses of water are worthwhile. By the company's own logic, every drop of water that isn't harvested from the sky or prevented from evaporation is "waste"—simply because it doesn't flow to people. But that's only true if you stand to profit from each drop of water that's sold.
The Bottom Line
I became an environmental lawyer because there are some things in this world that are too precious to be reduced to profit margins or quantified in dollars and cents. Cadiz's plan to extract billions of gallons of water from beneath a vibrant desert is a money-making scheme that will extract private profits from beneath public lands.
15 Lawmakers Plotting to Destroy and Privatize America's Public Lands https://t.co/af2o5IEKpU @World_Wildlife @greenpeaceusa— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1489797604.0
Marie Logan is an associate attorney with the California regional office of Earthjustice.