Toxic pesticides vs. Monarchs – iconic species needs your help

Dear Friend, Don’t let Bayer-Monsanto drive monarch butterflies toward extinction. Donate $27 or more before the clock strikes midnight! If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: [Donate $27]( [Donate $50]( [Donate $100]( [Donate another amount]( A monarch butterfly flies 3,000 miles to its wintering grounds, hoping to pass on the migratory torch to the next generation. But there's a problem...on its journey back, it can't find milkweed, the only place it can lay its eggs. This problem is now widespread. And this year, we saw the presence of Eastern monarch butterflies in their wintering grounds DROP by 22%! They are now declared endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. What's worse, a key driver of this decline is preventable: toxic pesticides like Bayer-Monsanto's Roundup. [We need to stop Bayer-Monsanto from wreaking more havoc on endangered monarchs before they are all gone! Make your contribution of $27 or more before the clock strikes midnight and protect precious monarchs and our planet!]( Western monarchs have declined by over 99% since the 1980s. They're at risk of disappearing forever -- and they are more at risk than ever before. A key factor in their decline is the widespread use of glyphosate -- a.k.a. Bayer-Monsanto's Roundup. We need to get this toxic pesticide out of our food system before it's too late for monarchs. But as long as profit prevails over the survival of these iconic butterflies, we will keep seeing declines until there are no more monarchs left to count. We can't let it come to that, Friend, but we need your help urgently! Help save monarchs and protect our planet from toxic pesticides. Donate $27 or more today. If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: [Donate $27]( [Donate $50]( [Donate $100]( [Donate another amount]( Scientists have confirmed what we have long feared: milkweed, vital to the survival of the monarchs, is contaminated by TOXIC pesticides. A recent study found every single sample of milkweed was contaminated -- scientists found 64 different pesticides, and a third of samples contained pesticides at levels known to be deadly to monarchs. This poisoning of the only food source for monarch caterpillars is one more factor driving monarchs to the brink. And it's all for the sake of corporate greed. Bayer-Monsanto needs to be held accountable for its role in this tragic loss. As monarch populations have plummeted, the amount of Bayer-Monsanto's Roundup used each year has skyrocketed -- from 11 million pounds in 1987 to nearly 300 million pounds in 2016. Roundup -- an herbicide that kills virtually all plants except crops genetically engineered to survive it -- is wiping out milkweed, the ONLY food young monarchs eat. Corporations like Bayer-Monsanto are doubling down on their pollinator-toxic pesticides -- lobbying against critical environmental protections and pushing for even more widespread use of pesticides to increase their profits. It's up to us to put a stop to it before it's too late! Don't let Bayer-Monsanto drive monarch butterflies toward extinction. Add your support for monarchs and our planet with a $27 donation to Friends of the Earth. If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: [Donate $27]( [Donate $50]( [Donate $100]( [Donate another amount]( The migration of the monarch butterfly is unlike any other. Each fall, millions of these colorful creatures leave their summer feeding and breeding grounds and travel up to 3,000 miles south to reach their overwintering grounds in Mexico and California. No other insect in the world migrates such a distance to places it has never been before. The butterflies making their way back north today could be the great-great-grandchildren of the monarchs that left in the fall. It is a team effort -- an epic, intergenerational journey hardwired into their DNA. This migration is unique, remarkable, and fragile. The monarch is the only butterfly known to make a two-way migration as birds do. But unlike any other great migrators, like birds or caribou, none of these individual butterflies will ever return. Instead, they will fly part of the way back north, where they will mate and lay eggs on only one plant: milkweed. There, their eggs will hatch into colorful caterpillars, who then feed on the milkweed and transform into butterflies before continuing north, and over multiple generations, finish their round trip. But milkweed is being wiped out by Bayer-Monsanto's Roundup, and the monarch butterflies that depend on it are being decimated. Fewer monarchs are surviving as a result -- and soon, it could be none at all. Companies like Bayer-Monsanto are using their money and power to protect their profits at all costs. What's more, they are spending millions to distract the public and policymakers from the role their pesticides play in the killing of pollinators -- taking a page right out of the playbook of Big Tobacco. Our plan has the power to win comprehensive protections for monarch butterflies, people, and the planet. But we need you to step up and be the hero in this story -- before these beautiful and iconic butterflies disappear forever. Make your membership contribution of $27 or more before it's too late for butterflies, people, and the planet! It's now or never for monarchs. Show your support for them and our planet with a $27 donation to Friends of the Earth before the clock strikes midnight! If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: [Donate $27]( [Donate $50]( [Donate $100]( [Donate another amount]( Standing with you, Kendra Klein Deputy director of science, Friends of the Earth Contact Us: Friends of the Earth U.S. Washington, D.C. | Berkeley, CA 1-877-843-8687 [Contact us]( Email Preferences: [Click here to unsubscribe]( Learn more: www.foe.org/news www.foe.org/about-us www.foeaction.org Connect: [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Flickr]( © 2023, Friends of the Earth. All Rights Reserved. [supporter]